Tenth circle of Hell

If the demons are looking for ideas, I have a suggestion. Sentence someone to spend eternity merging from 95 North to 93 North during rush hour, especially in the winter when it is dark then.

Every time I drive home from Boston, I wonder: Who designed this interchange and what were they thinking?

Recent reading

I've been enjoying a delightful spree of very fluffy reading, mostly British chic lit. It's been a nice change of pace. These books do tend to make me hungry though. Everyone is always sitting down to yummy food and good wine.

During our vacation, I also read Good Omens. It's hilariously funny, and I was all set to buy it for Dad for Christmas, when I read about the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and their four biker sidekicks (with names like Grevious Bodily Harm and Embarassing Personal Problems) and had a vivid memory of Dad reading that part aloud to me.

Two of the main characters are a demon and an angel, who have become friends over the thousands of years they've both been on earth interferring with humans. I found these snippets from the demon's point of view very telling:

Oh, he did his best to make their short lives miserable, because that was his job, but nothing he could think up was half as bad as the stuff they thought up themselves. . . . Over the years Crowley had found it increasingly difficult to find anything demonic to do which showed up against the natural background of genearlized nastiness.

And just when you'd think they were more malignant than ever Hell could be, they could occassionally show more grace than Heaven ever dreamed of. Often the same individual was involved.

I'm also continuing to read Living the Sabbath, mostly on Sundays. It's extremely thought provoking and deserves its own post once I've finished.

I had hoped to take The Book Thief on vacation with me, but only one of the three libraries I'm currently using has a copy, and it's out and not due back until later in the month. Endless Forms Most Beautiful will have to be an inter-library loan. I'm hoping to call in the request tomorrow.

Disney Photos

We spent the last week at Disney World. We play hard on our Disney trips, which in our case means we don't spend a lot of time taking photos. But I thought I'd post a few anyway.

Here is LW with Eeyore, very first thing on our first morning. The older kids and Michael were dashing to ride Expedition Everest (and get FastPasses for later). LW and I were walking to ride Triceratop Spin (think Dumbo but with dinosaurs) and saw Eeyore standing around with only a two-person line.

As we were leaving that night, just at park closing, a Disney employee asked us if we would like to be the last family to see Pooh, Tigger, and Eeyore for the day. LW was too excited to pose with the older kids--he raced from one character to the other--but here are the older three with Pooh.

Our second day at Epcot, I took LW to see Mickey, Goofy, Minnie, Donald, and Pluto. (The other kids were re-riding Test Track first thing in the morning, and LW didn't want to ride it again. So we went straight to the characters and only had to wait five minutes. Since LW had been asking for a chance to "hug Mickey and Donald" all week long, I was happy to give him a chance.) He refused to have anything to do with Minnie, but here he is hugging Mickey.

The three younger kids spent a lot of time playing in this fountain in Morocco.

All four kids on Main Street in the Magic Kingdom. (Disney decorates for Christmas ridiculously early.

Election results irony

Even as I celebrate Obama's win and marvel at how far we have come as a country since the days of Jim Crow laws, I am saddened by the successful passage in several states of ballot measures that restrict the civil liberties of a minority group.

Two steps forward, one step back.

What the kids are saying

NB to the minister during the church service, after she asked the kids to draw fish on the envelopes that will be passed out on stewardship Sunday later this month: Can they be predatory fish?

LW, loudly, in the middle of church while looking at a picture of King Saul: Mommy, look! He's wearing a cape! He's a vampire!

(You'll be glad to know that I anticipated where this was going and clapped my hand over his mouth, thus muffling the vampire part.)

LW, while reading Platypus and the Lucky Day: He is so cute. I want to kiss him. I'll give him a kiss at Disney World.

LW, on being told Platypus was not a Disney character: Where does Platypus live? Where can I kiss him?

IM, while watching TV, on seeing the warning "Warning: Indigenous nudity": Good. I like that.
Michael: Why?
IM: 'Cause it's funny.