Christmas and my birthday came and went without any casualties, even overriding the usual assassination attempts on Dan by Tracy during euchre tournaments.

Townie night was a riot. We skipped around to a few bars. At the final stop, I did karaoke and whiskey sours while two of my brothers, Sue, and Sue's friends drank lots of beer and played games and watched me. Of course I am always the designated driver, so I didn't get too lit. :) Actually no one I was with sang but me but they thought I was pretty good, even though the tavern prize went to a girl who sang about half of the old Fiona Apple hit. She had a good voice..."....All I want...is a good defense...'cause I'm feeling like a crim-a-null........." Anyway, that was that.

We all got too much stuff, especially the kids...and my house is a cluttered mess. I come home from work today and of course it's a disaster. It always is.

I even got Nathanael some of the most original Christmas scents- frankincense- how's that for the real deal.

To anyone who is humbugging at Christmastime,

HERE!!!!!!!

is where I hope you are LOCKED UP FOREVER AND EVER AND EVER!

(maniacal Christmas laughter)

Heading south of the border shortly.

I still have a tickle in my throat. Chuck is getting better but is bemoaning the abysmal performance of his flu shot. I sympathize and agree.

I wonder where I got this bug. Before the KY airport, I was at a Christmas party all day, our company's. It was loads of fun!!!! What did I do with all my funny money? Why, true to my Troxel origin, I played Texas Hold'em the entire time! (Many small losses offset my two big winning hands, so I about broke even.) Any one of the 25-year-old bonehead show-off boys at my table could have coughed on me when I took their money that one time. Hey, guys! Lay off! It's fake money! I didn't even win any raffles from that money!

If anyone gets offended by my li'l ole' blog, please chill...I get facetious and make silly attempts at humor. The people who know me, know me.

The first established churches were in Ethiopia, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, and later Italy (Christians had to suffer a few centuries of being eaten by lions in the arena...)anyway, much of Europe didn't hear of Christianity for hundreds, even a thousand years after its beginnings.
Christmas on Dec. 25th came to be celebrated as the birth of Christ though he was really born in the spring. Dec. 25 is really about the time of Roman saturnalia, English yule, a pagan tradition celebrating the new year and sun reversing its course.
The Christmas tree, the yule log, etc. etc. etc. all have to do with pagan customs that Christian converts later used for interpreting Christian concepts. Sometimes those concepts don't really oppose. LIke Easter eggs as a fertility ritual, came to symbolize birth/renewal, which is what the Paschal season also teaches through the resurrection of Christ.

Another subject, arising out of our own cultural constraints:
Among Christians, "white" people these days are pretty much in the minority. :)

But that's OK, Jesus wasn't Caucasian, it isn't a "white" thing. I hate that so many missionaries confused teaching what Christ said. For example, many old schools didn't allow Navajo kids to speak their own language, only English. Certainly no sense in that! England became Christianized at the point of Charlemagne's sword 1000 years after Christianity began. English is certainly no better or worse than Navajo to speak or pray in! In the Christian Bible, it very distinctly points out that the Holy Spirit speaks all languages.I know some people did things in the name of Christ which Christ would never endorse (see Crusades, conquistadores, etc.). I hope those events don't become the face of Christ to people because it certainly wasn't what Christ was about.

I have so very rarely met anyone who celebrates Kwanzaa. It seems like such a kewl celebration but you know I live in a city that's about half African-American...my neighborhood is about half African-American...I've worked in places that are about 90% African-American...about half the people I KNOW where I live are African-American. Now normally I don't really think about that too much. Most of them are, denominationally, Southern Baptist, and some small percentage are Muslims (some of the American branch, the Elijah Muhammad followers, I guess, someone tell me more about that). But most I know attend a Baptist or Non-demoninational or other type of church, or grew up with that, so they have had the Christmas celebration in their homes for years and years. But this kwanzaa thing never caught on. I have only met ONE PERSON whose family even tried doing the Kwanzaa thing, and he was from a VERY educated (a family who may have been able to research it well). It seems to have caught on with The Huxtables. But the people I know have seemed to have no interest in it. It sounds interesting to me. It really does. But maybe kids just aren't as interested in husk dolls as they are Game Boys. Hence, Christmas is the biggie. Too bad. We ought to be telling kids just WHY we give gifts on Christmas.

Since Hannukah and Christmas begin on the same day this year, I fully expect Ken and Steve to cook up some good matza balls. Oy ve, and ho ho ho! LOLOL It was a miracle from God, yes, GOD!!!!! the author of all miracles...to hold the oil out for so long...hence, Hannukah...

God will make a way where there is no way.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!

Remember God's MIRACLES at Hannukah!

Remember God's MIRACLES at Christmas!

IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT....then HUMBUG!!!!!

Nathanael RAWKS!!!!!!

(See post before the anti-anti Christmas post.)

MY KIDS SO RAWK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't know how I got that lucky to have kids who turned out so much better than I am.

Now it seems Chuck is feeling worse; I'm feeling better. I think poor Chuck is going to insist on my obtaining a full clean bill of health before I ever visit here again! Poor thing now has a temp of 101. And supposedly that is a MILD flu because he had the flu shot.

I was NOT SICK until I got up from my nap. When I first arrived in Tucson I wasn't sick, just tired. I sat on the porch and talked about wildlife with them both for a while, then lay down for a nap. I woke up and BLAMMO! I was run over by a truck.


I and about 300 septa- and octagenarians just enjoyed a Christmas (YES, I say CHRISTMAS,
not that infernal word HOLIDAY) concert. It was mostly Christmas carols, with some Andrew Lloyd Weber, some church music by Bach, and some traditional Hannukah music also. I do say the word Christmas, even though they weren't all Christmas carols, because I'm so sick of the sanitizing of everything by the ACLU and like-minded thought police. Where I live in Cincinnati, some of the people who celebrate Ramadan have said, "Let those people say Christmas already! We're not "offended" because we see a sign that says "Merry Christmas" on it!"

I mean what is so offensive about a city posting "Merry Christmas" on the street...The ACLU constures that as "endorsement of a religion"...sorry, no...no one is forcing me to have a merry Christmas, after all. If I so prefer, I can have a fracking sucky one if I want to. It does get my panties in a wad when those same people say it's just fine and dandy to post all the ads for porn (see Larry Flint's places in our area; also Bristol's in Monroe) just anywhere in the public claiming it's freedom of expression. It is just fine and dandy to send pictures of people doing utterly undoable things to each other on a 12-year-old's I-pod but NO, that 12 year old MUST be protected from the image of the Baby Jesus!!!! I mean after he sees that image he may just decide to be something WAY WORSE than a porn addict....he might actually decide on a RELIGION....he may actually, because of that image, decide to be (gasp!!!!) a Christian!!!!
SO.
There ya go.

If you don't like what I have to say, then:

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! MAY TEN THOUSAND MANGER SCENES GROW SPONTANEOUSLY BETWEEN YOUR TOES! MAY ANGELS "HARK THE HERALD" IN YOUR EARS FOR THE NEXT THREE MILLENIUM! MAY YOUR RELIGION-FREE SANITIZED BORING HUMDRUM OF A LIFE BE INTERRUPTED REPEATEDLY BY A PARADE OF CLAMORING, CLANGING, OVER-THE-HILL PEALING SILVER BELLS WHOSE ECHOES NEVER DIE AND DRIVE YOU INSANE ENOUGH TO RIP OUT YOUR OWN NOSE HAIRS ONE BY ONE!

Ok, I will stop now.
Have a Merry Christmas and see that as many others as possible have one, too.

Welcome to the Braggin' Post

I now gotta give my son his props.

222 on his PSAT which is the 99th percentile.

Merit scholar score!!!!!


UBERCONGRATS! My son Nathanael is DA BOMB!

Thanks and love to all for prayers and thoughts!!!!

I posted the following on Toy's reply page:

I'm the sickie in Arizona! wee how fun!!!! Went to the hospital yesterday with Ellen, very patient Ellen, and there were dozens of folks ahead of me, most of them in much worse shape than I was.

What's up?!!!! I thought people were sent to Arizona to get BETTER!

Well I am on Tamiflu now and things are looking up though I still can't take much of a breath. But the x-rays show no gunk in my lungs. Test show no strep. Influenza test positive.

Now when I was given a chance to get a FLU SHOT, a FREE FLU SHOT, I didn't do it....I was afraid of what maybe I only thought I had heard...side effects, etc. And the fact that if you're immunized against a couple of strains, there are a lot more strains that can get you. Well KICK ME!!!! It MIGHT have prevented this. I don't know for sure, but it probably would have.

They say give the flu 7-10 days.
Since I have a good immnue system, I give it 5. Since this is my fourth day, then, I'm over the hump.

I think I will be well enough to go to a symphony tonight.

So everyone...get your flu shot!

Seems I have infected Chuck. Since he had his flu shot, a sore throat is all it will do to him.

Get your flu shot!!!
Get your flu shot!!!
Get your flu shot!!!

I was fine when I left Louisville, though I had drunk too much soda. The caffeine prevented me from really sleeping there at the airport, even though there was a couch to lie down on. I put my coat out to protect me from cooties and then didn't really sleep. Caffeine. Too much diet pop, which I'm addicted to. I kicked myself for that, then when I went on the first plane to Dallas, I still couldn't sleep much. The poor guy next to me probably was sick of me trying to sleep by putting my head here, there, etc, even though there was one seat between us. By the time I hit Dallas, I was really tired but otherwise feeling all right. I got on the plane to Tucson, and lo and behold, the caffeine had not let up, and my right leg kept tingling. The guy next to me had to have been more than a little perturbed when I kept getting up to use the loo, but more than that, I just wanted to stretch my leg. And the plane attendant probably really DID mind when I asked to sit down in the back row where I'd have more room. Well I still didn't sleep much. By the time I got to Tucson I was really sleep but in good spirits. Ellen and Chuck drove me to their new home in Green Valley. We sat on the back porch and talked about the wildlife around here and then I decided I had better try to sleep.
When I woke up, that bronchitis I thought I was rid of was back in full force. Fever, cough, gunky stuff I won't describe, and more. So YIPPEEEE!!! I'm on vacation and I'm sick!
My fever kept spiking. I took Tylenols and that relieved it some, and then it would spike again. Finally in distress I asked God to relieve me. Instantly the fever left me. I actually felt the heat of my fever on the covers- it felt like an electric blanket.
I figured prayer would definitely work, and God removed the huge fever, though later I ran a slight fever, it was nothing like it was. I have shown Micah prayer, over and over again, and every single time it works, when he gets a headache from his allergies. I prayed over him the other day and about two minutes later he says "the headache's gone!" God is working on his little heart; sometimes he admits he knows it's God; sometimes I asked "who do you think is responsible for this? The medicine didn't work. But prayer did." Sometimes he responds, "Science." "What do you mean, science?" "Just...science." (By that I think he means there is a non-supernatural reason.) "Well, just who created science?"However, when he's really hurting, he will ask me to pray for him. It works and whenever natural OR supernatural, it is not my own works, it is God's, and my prayer is always made by imploring the perfect shed blood of Christ. It is unbelievable but believe! You don't have to take it from me. See for yourself.
See also: Woman at the well:
"Come, I will show you a man who knows everything I ever did." And later people said, "you don't have to convince us any more; we've seen Him for ourselves."
Well I still have the sore throat and cough and some aches and pains. I'm getting better. Whatever God did not relieve instantly, He left for me for a reason. I will know the reason sooner or maybe much, much later in Heaven when God explains to me some of the mysteries of life. This is by far not the harshest thing I've ever suffered. But it does suck to be in beautiful Tucson and in the gorgeous desert, which I so rarely see, and be sick! I had better be well by tomorrow night because Ellen has tickets for herself and me to see a Christmas choir. And the next day for an orchestra concert. Tucson pops, I think? I will let you know.
Well I keep sleeping a lot. I was actually able to catch the end of the Bengals/Browns game. I kept watching the score while alternating between the Steelers/Bears and Colts/Jags games. (Did anyone catch the latter? Amazing what anger can do! Hey I know you all aren't used to losing but ramming a guy's head into the ground over and over, do you think no one's gonna notice that? Huh?) Well Cleveland and Cincinnati have always had quite the raucous rivalry. Each city hates the other and neither knows why. Well the Bengals, who trounced the Steelers last weekend, and were 9 and 3, weren't going to let themselves get beaten by the little ole' Browns. The Browns, coming to play at Paul Brown Stadium. But it isn't their stadium. Paul Brown's babies playing. Anyway, the Browns led most of the way but I knew the Bengals would clinch it and they did. My sick self was only able to catch a bit of it but I knew the Bengals would soon be ten and three and they are. Who dey!

Snow on its way. OMG for 3-6" they have had weather warnings scrolling and beeping on TV for TWO DAYS!!! Since Tuesday. Tuesday's warning went something like, "the NWS has issued a winter storm warning for Thursday night". Gee I don't think I'm informed enough.

The people here are all abuzz. Where's the snow? Where's the snow? Let's cancel school 5 days in advance! Let's shut down the factories! Sound the alarms! Better stock up now or you'll die of starvation!

Very early in the a.m., at 6:18. I should have taken a Sunday flight but I need time to catch Micah up on homework, etc. Anyway that is quite early. If you can drop me off at the airport the night before, that would be great and make more sense than getting up at 4:00 a.m. I sleep really well in airports (not a joke, I really do). I would actually prefer that to getting up really early and you getting up so early.