Random Thoughts 12/10/05

• 5000 hits! Hurrah! That's one thousand hits in just the last month. At this pace, 7000 hits by mid-February is certainly possible. Thanks for reading, everybody!
  
• By the way, does anybody actually "hurrah" anymore? Everyone I know says "yeah," "yay," or "alright." The only time I ever hear "hurrah" is in Civil War movies and on BBC America. Update: After a little research I discovered that the word has evolved through the years from huzzah to hurrah to hooray. Now you can finally sleep at night.
  
• We've gone to the movies twice in the last month (not our normal pace) and both times we have run into people we know. It's kind of cool to go where everybody knows your name… and they're always glad you came… Sorry, got distracted there for a minute. Anyway, it's great to always be running into friendly and familiar faces. KCK is really feeling like home.
  
• A nice middle aged woman approached Shannon and the boys and me in the Chinese restaurant we always go to. Elijah had beef and broccoli up to his elbows, Brennan was dissecting fortune cookies and Tanner was loudly slurping his soup. Half expecting her to express pity for a beleaguered young mother and maybe even get on to me for "causing all of this," I was surprised when she said how impressed she was with our family and what well behaved, beautiful children we had. She said other stuff but I was in such a state of shock I had trouble hearing her.
• Speaking of Shannon, her hip problem is getting bad. Even though she has some days with no pain at all, most days are pretty bad and the evenings are especially rough. Please be praying that these last three months go quickly before Graham gets here.
• My cat has a ridiculous obsession with cotton gloves. You know, the little stretchy ones that kids wear? Well, she likes to carry them in her mouth and she wants you to play fetch with her. You throw the glove and she runs and retrieves it like a dog. Even if it's three in the morning, she'll whine and cry until you throw the glove. So every night I have to find all the little gloves and put them away so the cat won't be tempted.
• Elijah has become a hat wearer. We have a blue winter hat that he likes to wear around the house. The problem is that the hat has ear flaps and he wears one in front and one in back. It's pretty cute, watching him tilt his head waaaay back so he can see where he's going.
• I may blog on this later but what is with all of these churches canceling Sunday services on Christmas Day? I'm sorry but I don't get that. If it's so sacred to us as Christians that the Wal-Mart greeter says "Merry Christmas," why isn't it holy-day enough to be at church? And if you say it's just a secular holiday, then why skip church? I just don't get it.
• And why is it so offensive if a business says "Happy Holidays?" The other day I walked out of a convenience store and the clerk hollered "Happy holidays!" as I left. My first (sarcastic) thought was, "the nerve of that anti-Christian, hate-spewin', beer-drinkin', tobacco-usin', democrat-votin', Harry Potter-readin', pagan bigot! I oughta slash her tires – teach her not to worship the baby Jesus!" *sigh…* Actually, I grew up saying "Happy Holidays" and all I meant was Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Years. No anti-Christian prejudice here. But maybe I've been offending people for years and not realizing it. Oh well, Happy Hanukkuh!