Some mail servers these days are getting ridiculously aggressive about trying to block spam. A perfect example of this is (surprise surprise… not!) Microsoft’s mail hosting services such as Hotmail. If we try to email anyone at a Hotmail address, our mail server immediately gets a rejection before it even sends the content of the message, just based on the IP addresses on our mail server! This is a server that has never sent any sort of unsolicited email, including spam and viruses.
Read the rest of this entry »
Pedantic Mail Servers
April 4th, 2007“F” rating for “The Conception Chronicles”
March 1st, 2007I am barely on page 7 of this book by Patty Doyle Debano, Courtney Edgerton Menzel and Shelly Dicken Sutphen, and already I am offended and disgusted. The authors seem to assume that:
every woman is taking birth control
every childbearing-age couple is rich enough to own a house, and stupid enough to think a baby needs a whole new addition to the house
those couples only want two or three children (thank God for the Catholic couples who say that it gets easier with five and six children and more, with more helpers)
we want to hear normal marital sex referred to as “unprotected”
the view that God made our bodies perfect and birth control absolutely should not be used is for barefoot women in long skirts who mutter prayers and actually love God…like me
Some of it is okay The above really bothers me, with the occasional swear word – the authors represent the kind of people I want to keep my family away from. Thank God I also checked out the book that inspired “The Sound of Music”, called “The Trapp Family Singers”, a heartwarming tale written by a truly Catholic mother. That’s what I’m going to read in bed while Catherine sleeps!
Toddler in a Backpack
February 14th, 2007I put my toddler in a backpack tonight. I didn’t take her to school, and I didn’t put anything else in the backpack with her. She was in a backpack made for little ones, with a belt for her and a belt for me. I swept while she was in that backpack and we had a good time together. I played classical music from Papa’s office and we cleaned the wood floors in the living room, hallway, kitchen and the tile in the bathroom. Alleluia, it’s done – until the men come home from shopping and track as they bring in what they bought! The only precaution I had to take, besides not bending all the way down (one bent knee was the most I could do for her safety), was moving things out of the way before she was in the backpack so I wouldn’t have to try when it wouldn’t be as safe. I think she really enjoyed watching me, and it was much easier than trying to keep her away from what I’m sweeping if she were walking around on the floor. I had both hands to use, too, unlike some of the time when she is in a sling and I instinctively support her with one hand. I recommend this method to mothers who have access to a baby backpack and need to sweep – I haven’t tried vacuuming with her yet (there is too much on the floor in the carpeted rooms) but I think now that she is old enough to stand the noise, she might like doing that with me, too.
Dora
January 16th, 2007I never thought I would be doing this. I am writing a post to defend Dora.
A friend doesn’t like Dora because we are in an “English-speaking country”. Yes, and from its beginning, America has been largely made up of people from countries where people do not speak English. There are millions of people here in the USA who speak Spanish, others Asian languages, and many more. Through the centuries my family has spoken German and Luke’s family spoke Polish and a few other languages. As Luke says, “Not to mention that English is one of the hardest languages to learn.” Read the rest of this entry »
Snowed In
January 15th, 2007On Saturday I really enjoyed being snowed in. I spread birdseed all over our ground floor porch, which is sheltered by the two apartments’ decks above it, and on the grass around the railing. Then I put hot water and a bit of food on the porch railing.
That night, though, I called and received an order for some of my homemade good food from a woman we would have seen at Holy Mass yesterday in Topeka. When I looked at the weather forecast I realized there was no way we could drive to Holy Mass. We didn’t, either – we stayed home and inside all day Saturday and Sunday, except when I joyfully went out in the sleet yesterday afternoon to get the mail.
Christians and communism
January 14th, 2007Nice article on TFP: here
Goodbye Fr. Wathen
November 7th, 2006Thank you, Denise, for writing this great obituary and sharing your personal memories. (please see the bottom of this entry for a correction about feeneyism)
Prayers and Masses Needed for
Repose of Soul of Fr. James F. Wathen
Intolerance
November 5th, 2006“America, it is said, is suffering from intolerance. It is not. It is suffering from tolerance of right and wrong, truth and error, virtue and evil, Christ and chaos. Our country is not nearly so much overrun with the bigoted as it is overrun with the broadminded….
“…In the face of this broadmindedness, what the world needs is intolerance.”
(Fulton Sheen’s “A Plea for Intolerance,” 1931)
Thank you, Dr. Droleskey.
http://christorchaos.com
Prayer to Obtain a Conversion
October 8th, 2006Prayer to Obtain a Conversion
O Glorious Patriarch St. Joseph, who merited to be called “just” by the Holy Ghost, I urgently recommend to thee the soul of (Name), which Jesus redeemed at the price of His Precious Blood.
Thou knowest how deplorable is the state and how unhappy the life of those who have banished this loving Saviour from their hearts, and how greatly they are exposed to the danger of losing Him eternally. Permit not, I beseech thee, that a soul so dear to me should continue any longer in its evil ways; preserve it from the danger that threatens it; touch the heart of this prodigal child and conduct him back to the bosom of the fondest of fathers. Abandon not him, I implore thee, till thou hast opened to him the gates of the heavenly city, where he will praise and bless thee throughout eternity for the happiness which he will owe to thy powerful intercession. Amen.
No pants, please
September 13th, 2006We ask that if you want to send us clothes, you do not send Corinne or Catherine pants, because we consider that to be immodest. Corinne very rarely wears sweatpants, and wears skirts or a dress the rest of the time. We usually dress Catherine in a dress or in a top and her skirt; it is harder with her because it is hard to find baby clothes that cover the diaper and keep going!
Deuteronomy 22:5: A woman shall not be clothed with man’s apparel, neither shall a man use woman’s apparel: for he that doeth these things is abominable before God.
In our culture men wear pants, so women should wear skirts (below the knee) or dresses instead.