Gaudete!

Happy Sunday, dear readers. Hope your favorite football teams won their respective games.

It's Gaudete Sunday, which Catholics all around the world celebrate as the halfway point between the start of Advent and Christmas. On this day, priests wear pink (or "rose", as they're officially designated) vestments as a moment of joy in a season of penance. Gaudete actually means "joy", from the Latin word "gaudere"-"joyous", and this is meant to be an inspiration to help us get through to Christmas and the birth of Jesus.

While I'm admittedly not the most fashion-forward or conscious individual, I try and make it a point to coordinate my makeup to match the dominant colors of the religious holidays and observations I celebrate. It's my small way of proclaiming my devotion to the Catholic faith. Some may dress in a particular manner to proclaim their devotion, others may say special prayers, but I like using makeup.

My Gaudete Sunday look for 2015. Pink with some purple and black

Closeup of my blending detail. I really like the way this came out

I used my favorite Sephora palette and my Coastal Scents Go Palette in Cairo to get this look. I can legitimately thank those beauty tutorials I was binge watching a few weeks back since I feel they helped me improve my skills significantly. With practice, maybe I too will be an MUA and be able to do some beauty tutorials one day too.

Here's a bonus picture for your Sunday. Yesterday after Confession, we went to Walmart to go get some needed items. While cruising through the personal care aisle, I spotted this.

It may be a little hard to see, but these razor cartridges have "sold by eaches" printed on the sticker on the security casing

I'm pretty sure they meant to say "sold individually", but the illiterate printer entered that mostrosity instead.

This is why I will be homeschooling my children when they are old enough.

Have a good week everyone!

The Turkey

Greetings!

Today, we got a turkey!

And some other goodies too!

Normally, turkey is not something we eat. My husband hates turkey with a passion and I'm not crazy about it either. Come Thanksgiving, when the stores are pushing turkeys left and right, my husband and I normally look forward to preparing gumbo. This has been an annual tradition even before we were married.

But, thanks be to our good friends at the Latin Mass church's St. Vincent de Paul program, we were given a free turkey and all kinds of fixin's. These were donated by a wealthier parish in the diocese, and since we're a family in need, we weren't gonna turn down free goodies no matter who they came from!

After chatting with some of our acquaintances in the program for a bit, we went home. Last year, we used an ice chest filled with water to thaw the turkey outside in the yard. This year, because we have a bigger home, my hubby has the turkey thawing in the bathtub. I'm not sure how much it weighs, but it's heavier than the baby, and she weighs in at 20 lbs! It'll probably be ready by tomorrow night or Thursday morning.

Just chillin' in the tub. All that's missing are some candles, wine, and some kind of digital entertainment

Last year, my hubby decided to smoke our donated turkey. We bought some hickory chips and he rigged up a smoker in the backyard using our mini BBQ grill and a pounded-out swamp cooler vent. We juiced up the turkey with some Tony Chachere injection mix and popped it in the smoker to cook. The smoking went fine up until midnight when a sample tasted quite good, but, at some point during the night, the wind shifted and wound up vulcanizing the turkey. We managed to salvage most of it, but about 1/3 of the bird was pretty much charcoal.

The impromptu smoker

Oops...

This year, we have an actual oven to bake the turkey with, so hopefully a charcoal turkey doesn't make an appearance this time again. We've got plenty of Tony Chachere too, so that will help make this bird edible. Hubby will still make gumbo from the leftovers, which he did last year and it was quite good. Thank goodness we have a food processor. The baby is definitely gonna have some of this.

Turkey Day, here we come!

Sticky Little Fingers

Greetings!

Ever since he found a whole cache of concerts and rare footage of his favorite band, The Rolling Stones, my husband has their music playing on the computer daily. I don't mind, as it is a welcome break from the Mexican ranchero music I hear my neighbors playing.

This got me thinking, while it will still be a while before the baby's first birthday, what should we get her? My husband and I decided to start a tradition where for our children's first birthday, they will get an article of clothing featuring one of our favorite classic rock bands (both American and British). Screw "Rockabye Baby"! Who needs creepy British nursery rhymes, when you can get better music sung by creepy British rock stars instead!

How appropriate for a toddler. Pic found here

While perusing the internet for a suitable garment, my husband saw the onesie above and decided that when the time came, he would get that specific one. The caption "sticky lil fingers" is a reference to the Stones' Sticky Fingers album.

Why rock band clothes?

Why not?

After all, the family that rocks together, rolls together!

Never stop rocking, even if you wind up in a wheelchair. Pic found here

Big Bad Bill

Here's a fun bit of music for your enjoyment.



Yes, that is the very same Van Halen of "Jump" fame. Aside from the unexpectedly catchy tune, it may surprise you to learn that Eddie and Alex's father, Jan Van Halen, made an appearance playing the clarinet in the background. Mr. Van Halen was a classically trained musician, and it pleases many a fan of the band to see that his sons learned well from their daddy.

As for the song's title, the first thing that came to my mind was THIS Bill!

Bill the Cat of Berkeley Breathed's most famous (and recently resurrected!) cartoon, Bloom County. Pic found here

Good night world. See you in the morning.

Throwback Thursday

Hi everyone!

A little something for #TBT

Yechh!

This photograph was taken in 2008, just before I'd left my home state of Illinois to go to college in Arizona. That hideous pillow in my hands was created by one of my dad's patients (he was a tailor and made that pillow as a down payment until his check came in).

I have no idea what happened to that pillow after this picture was taken. I think we wound up donating it to Salvation Army or something like that.

My Cat, Pest

Tonight while eating dinner, I caught my cat, Pest, doing this:

"Eater of Grass"

Actually, he was licking the salad dressing off of the lettuce.

While he forgets he's a cat about 90% of the time and is frequently annoying as all hell (hence his name, Pest), he'll still be my baby forever. Hubby and I raised him and his siblings by hand after their mommy died, and Pest is one of the few in that unfortunate litter that made it to adulthood. He's my survivor, and the one I practiced my mommy skills on in preparation for parenthood.

I love you, Pest. Even if you are a K-A-T-T, not a C-A-T.

Feuding with Fundies

Today's post was inspired by a conversation I had with a friend on Facebook this morning as I was eating breakfast. My friend, who lives in India, recently entered into an online relationship with a woman here in the US.  After congratulating him on the happy news, I asked my friend a few questions about his new girlfriend to get an idea of what she was like. He explained to me that while she lives at home with her parents and is a freelance DJ on the weekends, there's a feud going on between her and her parents because her parents are fundamentalist Christians while she is an atheist.

When one thinks of the word "fundamentalist", at least here in America, two specific images come to mind: one of a howling preacher standing in front of a congregation, waving around a Bible and admonishing his congregants to be "saved" or burn in hell; and the other of Moslem terrorists posing for pictures while brandishing a Koran in one hand and weapons in the other.

Dubs and Osama-two sides of the same coin

To understand these seemingly contradictory images, one must first know what "fundamentalism" means. Linguistically, the term "fundamentalist" is based on the root word "fundament", which means "foundation". In each of these two images, the preacher and the terrorist, the individuals believe that what they are doing is the correct way to practice their religions because their respective sacred scriptures say certain things which are to be followed, word for word.

This is where the trouble starts. Because fundamentalists believe that THEIR way is the "right" way, it causes all sorts of problems in society at large.

If you look beyond the linguistic definition of "fundament", you'll also see it refers to an anus; more crudely, the ass hole.

Pastor Robert Tilton, also known as "The Farting Preacher", appropriately enough

Ultimately, the fundamentalist is an asshole.

By its very nature, fundamentalism of any stripe (from the religious to the secular) puts ignorance up on a pedestal and says "this is what you must aspire to be. Anything outside our sacred texts is sinful!" It's one thing to be able to cite the preferred religious/secular texts backwards, forwards, up and down; but it doesn't mean shit if it renders you incapable of functioning within society at large.

That is ultimately the big beef I have with fundamentalism. Because of the ignorance that results from being exposed to such an insular world, the thumper essentially spits in God's face by telling Him "Your creation is not good enough for me! Therefore, it's not worth learning about!" Religious fundamentalists deny themselves knowledge of sciences, history, philosophy, and even knowledge of other sects of their own faith, much less other faiths. Secular fundamentalists deny themselves knowledge of religious traditions and practices, as well as humanities; the "why" aspects of life.

Do yourself a favor. Don't be a thumper. Don't be an asshole

Picture of the Day

Saw this on my Facebook feed and thought it was far too funny to pass up

Thus, your daily dose of humor

The Return of Tamtam

Ladies and gentlemen,

After a nearly three-year hiatus, filled with much change, growth, and challenge, I have returned to the world of blogging at long last.

To commemorate my return, I will post this poem that a friend of mine sent to me a few years ago. I believe it's called The Logical Conclusion, but I've also seen it listed as The Ass Shall Sigh Uninstructed.

When earth's last thesis is copied 

From the theses that went before, 

When idea from fact has departed 

And bare-boned factlets shall bore,

When all joy shall have fled from study 

And scholarship reign supreme; 

When truth shall "baaa" on the hill crests 

And no one shall dare to dream; 

When all the good poems have been buried 

With comment annoted in full 

And art shall bow down in homage 

To scholarship's zinc-plated bull, 

When there shall be nothing to research 

But the notes of annoted notes, 

And Baalam's ass shall inquire 

The price of imported oats; 

Then no one shall tell him the answer 

For each shall know the one fact 

That lies in the special ass-ignment 

From which he is making his tract. 

So the ass shall sigh uninstructed 

While each in his separate book 

Shall grind for the love of grinding 

And only the devil shall look. 

Against the "germanic" system of graduate study and insane specialization in the Inanities. 

-Ezra Pound

ED ANGER: “HEY, OBAMA! LEAVE THOSE KIDS ALONE!” | Weekly World News

my boy, ed anger, is back with a vengance! this time, he has his say on the september 8 speech to schoolchildren by the president. us conservatives aren't too keen on the president interrupting the schoolday to address just the students, and then having the dep't of "education" ship out a worksheet and basically turn this classroom address into a leftist indoctorination session. thankfully, i'm not a parent or else i would be like the other parents and take my kid outta school just for that day.

ED ANGER: “HEY, OBAMA! LEAVE THOSE KIDS ALONE!” Weekly World News

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enjoy!
tamtam

political correctness defined

this quote comes courtesy of patrice lewis over at "rural revolution". from a contest at texas a&m university, we have the definition of political correctness, as follows:

"Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end."

whoever came up with this definition should win the nobel prize! and notice how it subtly takes a jab at the people running the media, as well as those who follow this idiotic concept.

tamtam

a funny joke

in the spirit of good humor and keeping some light in this dark world of ours, here's a joke-courtesy of patrice lewis over at "rural revolution".

Katie Couric, Charlie Gibson, Brian Williams and a tough old U.S. Marine sergeant were captured by terrorists in Iraq. The leader of the terrorists told them he'd grant each of them one last request before they were beheaded and dragged through the streets.

Katie Couric said, "Well, I'm a Southerner, so I'd like one last plate of fried chicken." The leader nodded to an underling who left and returned with the chicken. Couric ate it all and said, "Now I can die content."

Charlie Gibson said, "I'm living in New York , so I'd like to hear the song 'The Moon and Me' one last time." The terrorists' leader nodded to another terrorist who had studied the Western world and knew the music. He returned with some rag-tag musicians and played the song. Gibson was satisfied.

Brian Williams said, "I'm a reporter to the end. I want a tape recorder so I can describe the scene here and what's about to happen. Maybe, someday, someone will hear it and know that I was on the job till the end." The leader directed an aide to hand over the tape recorder and Williams dictated his comments. He then said, "Now I can die happy."

The leader turned and said, "And now, Mr. Marine, what is your final wish?"

"Kick me in the behind," said the Marine.

"What?" asked the leader, "Will you mock us in your last hour?"

"No, I'm NOT kidding. I want you to kick me in the behind," insisted the Marine.

So the leader shoved him into the yard and kicked him in the behind. The Marine went sprawling, but rolled to his knees, pulled a 9 mm pistol from inside his cammies and shot the leader dead. In the resulting confusion, he emptied his sidearm into six terrorists, with his knife he slashed the throat of one with an AK-47, which he took, and sprayed the rest of the terrorists killing another eleven.

In a flash, all of them were either dead or fleeing for their lives. As the Marine was untying Couric, Gibson and Williams, they asked him, "Why didn't you just shoot them all in the first place? Why did you ask him to kick you in the behind?"

"What!?!" replied the Marine, "and have you three report that I was the aggressor....?"

while blogging about the election on myspace, i wrote this comment: in 2008, journalism as a respectible profession, died and left a rotting, stinking carcass behind.

i hope they all go under...>:[

tamtam

ED ANGER: DAVID LETTERMAN = DAVID BITTERMAN! | Weekly World News

ED ANGER: DAVID LETTERMAN = DAVID BITTERMAN! Weekly World News

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my favorite op-ed writer ed anger has his say on that ridiculous feud between sarah palin and david letterman. as for my take, letterman went too far cuz as far as im concerned, no one should ever joke about sex with a minor. that is just plain crass. although, i never really found letterman funny, i wouldnt be surprised if his ratings dropped because of this whole debaucle.

peace!

tamtam

ED ANGER SAYS: I HATE PEREZ HILTON! | Weekly World News

ED ANGER SAYS: I HATE PEREZ HILTON! Weekly World News

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another funny, but kinda old ed anger post. look for more in the coming months cuz after all, we could all use a laugh :)

tamtam

ED ANGER SAYS: MEXICAN PIGS ARE TRYING TO KILL ME | Weekly World News

ED ANGER SAYS: MEXICAN PIGS ARE TRYING TO KILL ME Weekly World News

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read this. i thought i'd post something humorous as opposed to my usual doom-and-gloom politics. ed anger was a columnist for the now defunct tabloid "weekly world news" (still on internet though!). he's known for his sharp satire of current events, AND he's right-wing, so its even more fun!