Birthday, Part 2

So we went to the exhibit on the Sistine Chapel this afternoon. Here are some pictures . . .

Here's the ceiling of the chapel with all the frescoes.

This fresco depicts both the Fall (left) and the expulsion from the Garden (right). I liked how Eve's face is changed quite a bit from when she is reaching for the fruit to when she is being expelled.

This is of the Flood. I liked how the ark was depicted like a house.

The Final Judgment.

Here's a close up of part of the Final Judgment. Near Christ are the apostles and martyrs, many of whom you can tell by what they are holding - symbols of them or their martyrdom. This shows Bartholomew, who, according to tradition, was flayed (skinned) alive. So here he is depicted as holding his skin!

Finally, here is the prophet Ezekiel, since we just finished studying his prophecy!

Birthday

I haven't posted for a bit. It's been a very busy couple of weeks! I am hoping that the next two week will be somewhat quiet so I can get caught up and get things ready for the start of the Lenten season . . .

But yesterday was my wife's birthday, so Happy Birthday!

Part one of her birthday was dinner yesterday. I made broiled Chilean Sea Bass encrusted with potato and horseradish, sweet potato fries (one of her favorites), and green beans, with a nice Chardonnay to go with it. I had never broiled fish before, so sadly, the top crust burned a little - but not too badly. The fish was still very good and tasty. For dessert . . .

I had a gift certificate to a local artisan and arranged for this cake to be made. Inside was vanilla cake with raspberry filling. So it both looked and tasted good!

Part two of her birthday will be Friday. There is an exhibition on the Sistine Chapel that is going around the world and it is currently in Tysons. It looks really cool and is probably the closest we'll ever get to seeing it, so we're going on Friday afternoon, followed by an early dinner.

Compare . . .

Number of people in the March for Life on Friday:

Number of people who came to support abortion on Saturday:

Hmmm . . .

March for Life

A couple pictures from this year's March. I didn't take too many because of the cold. :-)

At the end gathered across the street from the Supreme Court in our attractive lime green hats.

Scott and Grace, Me, my wife and daughter.

The Vinyl Cafe

A few years ago, a friend of mine alerted me to recordings on the internet titled "The Vinyl Cafe." They are short stories aired as a radio program, are approx. 15-20 minutes in length, and will bring a smile to your face. They popped up for me again on YouTube yesterday - I had forgotten about them. I listened to a couple during my lunch and thought I'd share them with the couple of folks who read this blog. 

Here's the promo from the official website:

The Vinyl Cafe aired weekly on CBC Radio, on select public radio stations in the United States, and via podcast. The radio show was written and hosted by the late Stuart McLean and featured stories, essays and music, often recorded at live concerts from across Canada and the US. It was on the air from 1994-2016. Periodically, The Vinyl Cafe returns to its old home on CBC Radio.

The Vinyl Cafe stories are about Dave, owner of a secondhand record store called "The Vinyl Cafe". The stories also feature Dave's wife, Morley, their two children, Sam and Stephanie, and assorted friends and neighbours. The stories are collected in books and on CD.

The motto of Dave's store – and of the radio show – is "We May Not Be Big, But We're Small."

So go to YouTube, search for "Vinyl Cafe," and listen to some. I think they're a nice distraction. :-)

Letters Home

During a flurry of activity in December, I came across a couple of bins of my Dad's stuff in our garage. We had loaded them with stuff when we moved him here and forgotten about them. I went through them a little and discovered a bunch of letters he had written home during World War II, dating from 1943-1946. They were written from Iowa, Mississippi, Texas, and California - places he went for basic training, air craft and pilot training, and all he needed to learn before being shipped out to the Pacific. Then there were letters written from various Pacific islands where he was stationed with his air rescue squadron. He told of some of the Filipino natives he saw, on being on leave in Tokyo after the fall of Japan, on missing his family and being home for the holidays, and various other things.

But one letter especially struck me: there was a letter written on August 11, 1945 from Mindinao in the Philippines - only five days and two days after the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He said that most of the men - even though it meant the quick end of the war - wished those things had never been developed. Their power and potential were frightening! We learn about those events so many years later and have our own thoughts about them, so how very interesting to hear the immediate reaction of someone so close to the events themselves.

There are more letters I need to go through - letters he wrote to his sisters. Perhaps there will be more interesting nuggets in those as well! 

How Cool Is This?

Bent icicles! I've never seen such a thing. Not sure how they formed. It was not a windy day yesterday; pretty calm, actually. And as you can see, some are hanging straight, but a few are bent! How cool!

And, we are due for some more snow Thursday night into Friday morning. Not as much this time, just a couple more inches to top things off. I'll have to put off my tree trimming and pruning and cutting off broken branches for at least another week. :-)