not nat

i know some of you follow nat the fat rat, but this is jack the fat cat. jack is one of the largest cats in existence, as you can see from this photo (i have placed him next to a hippo for comparison).

jack never goes outdoors, he pulls corn silk out of the trash and eats it, and when he is thirsty he licks out the inside of the bathtub. i sometimes give him a glass of water, which he immediately knocks over with his paw, and then drinks the water off the floor. (he used to drink out of the toilet, but he is too big to do that now.)

other than that, he is pretty much useless, though i thought you might like to see his picture anyway.

p.s. he is our only inside cat out of the dozen or so cats we own. perhaps "own" is a misnomer. we are infested with any number of cats. that's what i meant to say.

stupid wasps

i want to make another confession here, which is that i murder wasps. wasps who aren't hurting anything. wasps who (like everyone else) are beautiful in their own way. wasps who are peacefully chewing up clothespins and my porch to make beautiful papier mache nests in which to raise their little helpless young (see above). and look how cute their little faces are.

the only reason this is weird is that i am the person who catches spiders in the house and puts them outside. after making them a lunch to take with them. spiders are our friend. as, no doubt, you know. i don't know why i feel like giving spiders a break. it's probably a genetic abnormality. women aren't supposed to like bugs or spiders. i look at the spiders, and i can hear them calling in their little squeaky voices: "help me! help me!"



so, obviously there is no consistency in the abyss of the human soul. i might be more likely to give wasps a break if they weren't so stupid. well, look at the size of their brains. and they eat wood, for pete's sake. but what i was referring to is that every year they come and start making those lovely nests in all the corners of the top of my porch. then they start annoying me. when i walk toward the end of the porch, they send out a scout to annoy me ("go annoy her.") the scout buzzes round and round my head and makes me run and scream like a girl.

i took out a highly poisonous solution. and without regard to saving the earth (the earth snorts with contempt every time we talk about saving her), genetic damage to my cats and dog, or my own health, i SPRAY THE LITTLE BUGGERS until they are dead. go figure.

retraction

okay, okay, even rush is only right 98.7%. i will admit that i mostly was looking at the "mormonism" seminars from a very limited point of view, and so, um, well, basically my opinion was ignorant. i believed, because i ran up against rude seminary students there, that they were all rude, and just because i didn't get any good out of it (which could have been for any number of reasons), that no one got anything positive out of it.

i got a response to my rant from a dear friend who was the brains, heart and soul behind the seminars, which i wanted to put here (with her permission). i have to say that anything she says about it comes from the hundreds and hundreds of hours she invested, blood sweat and tears, and a much clearer eye, directed by love and the Holy Ghost.

heeeeere's amanda:

And...here's a real correction: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The seminar actually lasted 14 years, and there were many Baptist visitors who were respectful even while disagreeing. There were always 5 or 6 who I could feel the Spirit working with as they listened. Both Rita and I were approached by an attender who wanted to talk with us personally and positively about the event. I also helped one man getting his doctorate by contacting former Baptists to take a quesionnaire about why they left the Baptist Church. And then, there was Dr. Braswell, who wrote a book and included the most positive chapter one in his position has ever written about the good things he saw in us as members of the LDS Church--in addition to all the" false doctrine" we believe, I'm sure. I didn't read it. Most importantly, I've never felt the Spirit more strongly than I did during each one of these events. (I think there was one that I didn't feel as good about. Maybe that was the one you attended.)

(murmur murmur maybe she didn't feel good about it BECAUSE i attended.) never mind. i so hate to be corrected when i need it. i don't mind so much when i DON'T need it. how about you???

okay, i feel better now.

okay, so here's the question

saturday i participated in the smithfield preparedness expo, given at the church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints there, and open to (and intended for) the community. a lot of busy people spent their time planning, asking people to participate, and following up to make sure many areas of preparedness were covered. the participants gathered items for display, made handouts, and spent three hours during the expo answering questions in their areas of expertise. it was very nice and represented a lot of time and stress and taking time away from family and home. both the members and the community pretty much stayed away in droves (i talked to 4 or 5 people in the smithfield ward to were dutifully going from table to table), but that is another blog for another day.

it reminded me of a similar type of event that used to be held in a different stake (which shall remain nameless), in which members of the church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints offered classes in "mormonism" to students from a closeby baptist seminary (which will also remain nameless). these students were studying comparative religion, and the event was set up at the request of the director of the seminary. the seminary students received 4-6 hours of classes on family home evening, the temple, the church's view of the Atonement, the book of mormon, etc. the students were even given lunch at church member's expense. having participated as a teacher in that venue, i know that members who taught spent hours and hours of preparation, trying to anticipate the questions they were going to be asked, and seeking the guidance of the Spirit in their preparation. the students were, almost without exception, disrespectful, arrogant, argumentative, and just rude. after five or six years the event was discontinued.

at the expo yesterday, a volunteer with the national guard (i think, or some emergency action group that wears uniforms) was a notorious anti-mormon (i mean notorious in clayton). in past years, he somehow managed to keep fnding out who was being taught by the missionaries and showing up at their houses with anti-mormon literature right before their appointments with the missionaries. when the missionaries arrived, of course, the people had been influenced by the negative literature or were confused by its content and sent the missionaries away. this happened so many times that the missionaries were actually pulled out of clayton and were gone for many years. they are back now, but this man's agenda obviously hasn't chanaged. this man was there at a building owned by the church, supposedly volunteering to help with the expo. what he actually did was to abuse our hospitality by giving anti-mormon literature to the young 19-year-old missionaries. did anyone raise a fuss? no. someone in charged asked him to not hand out any literature except the preparedness information.okay, so here's the question? what are we thinking? is being polite our greatest commandment? what do YOU think?

old hat, new hat

FIRST of all, i'd like to thank and also commend everyone for not commenting on my last blog (the 'before' picture). it was the right thing to do and your mothers would be proud of you. very polite.

SECOND, as another test, i decided to run a picture of the new hat for working outside i just bought. i have been looking at and dreaming of buying this hat for two years, so it is very important to me. and to you, too, of course, so please cast your vote:

IS IT:

too big, too small,
too flat, too tall,
too loose, too tight,
too heavy, too light,
too red, too dotty,
too blue, too spotty,
too fancy, too frilly,
too shiny, too silly,
too beady, too bumpy,
too wooly, too lumpy,
too kinky, too curly,
too wrinkly, too twirly,
too pointy, too straight....OR:
too much like a pith helment OR:
just right.
(apoligies to the behrenstains)

and i won't tell your mothers what you say.