Clothes

I have to go by a new navy blazer today. I wore my old one so long that a hole appeard in the elbow. I like good looking clothes, I just hate buying new clothes. I guess if I bought more than a couple of jackets I wouldn't have to buy new ones every couple of years.

I read an article about the tailor every president since Johnson has used. He said a man should only wear a suit once every two weeks. I remember reading when I was a kid (in the now defuct "M" magazine, the best mens magazine ever published) that the minimum a man's closet should contain is ...

1 dark brown suit
1 light brown window pane suit
1 gray flannel suit, with 2 trousers
1 navy suit
1 black suit
1 glen plaid suit (black or brown)
1 navy blazer
1 camel hair blazer
1 tweed jacket
2 kakhi trousers
1 tuxedo

If that is the goal, I have not reached it.

Hector and Melissa

According to the Church calendar, today is a "wine day". I just had 2 glasses of a La Crema Winery's 2003 Sonoma Coast Chardonnay. I usually say "I don't like white wine." But this is good. I mean it. It is really really good. Melissa says it has hints of citrus. I disagree. I don't taste it. She also mentions bit of hazelnut and caramel. I totally agree with that. When I first tasted it I thought "oooooh. This is like butterscotch and pears" but haveing read Melissa's comment I agreee: Caramel it is.
Hector and Melissa have done a very good job. (Also, they are graduates of UC Davis. I don't think I've mentioned it but, Athanasia and I are thinking about moving to Davis in the Summer of 2006 so I can pursue a history degree there.) Well, you know what you have to do. Happy drinking.

I've added a new blog to the things I read every day

She is a musicologist living back east. But it was this post, having nothing to do with music, that made me a fan.

It moves. O, Baby! It moves!

You might have heard about this already, especially if you follow aerospace developments. If you havent seen it, well, let me just say this: It is probably the best thing to ever come out of the United States Air Force Academy. I've seen a lot of fast movers but this has more moves in more directions than I thought possible. Here it is. Thanks to my friend Mateo Grande for making sure I was in the loop for this.

Help Wanted

My wife manages about a dosen small rental properties. One of them needs a residential manager. She has not found an acceptable candidate. Let me describe the job, and, maybe, you'll know someone who might be a good match.

I'm writing this from memory so I might be off on a few details. It is a 16 unit complex in Campell, CA. There is a swimming pool. The apartments are nice, I've seen them. It is a part time job. This is a small complex and probably won't require more than 5 hours work per week. Compensation: the person who lives there will get a $900 apartment for less than $500 per month.

If you know anyone who can spare 5 or 6 hours per week, and is friendly (being nice to people is the most important part of the job) please have them leave a message for me in the comments. Oh, one more thing. If the person who gets the job is not already CCRM qualified the company will send him (or her) to school and pay the cost of taking the exam.

PT Cruiser

We bought a new car today. The 1994 Acura Integra with almost 180,000 miles just isn't reliable anymore. The clutch is starting to go, it has a bad oil leak (about 1 quart a month), it needs new shocks and brakes. The air compressor needs to be replaced. When I thought about how much money it was going to take to make this car relaiable again, I began to shudder. So, I called my friend Jeff who in addition to being a newly-commissioned pastor is also a banker. He knows lots of car dealers. Some of them owe him favors. So, we got a great discount on a PT Cruiser. And through Costco we are getting a totally unbelievable deal on insurance. I'm not wild about owing more money, but its that or lose transportation. Oh, the prision that are suburbs - forcing us to drive when God gave us feet. Nevertheless, I am thankful for our new car. We'll have it blessed on Wednesday.

Commissioning

My friend Jeff was "commissioned" at his church today. (The best I can tell, commissioning is the low-calorie version of ordination.) We left our house at nine-thirty to get there by eleven. I had looked up the church the night before so I would know how to get there. So we got there. And we got there half an hour early. So Athanasia and I and the little boy and I kicked around a soccer ball for a little while in the parking lot. But we saw a lot of people going in and we heard singing so we figured it was starting.

As we were walking in we saw a sign that said the service starts at 10:30. "Hmmmm", I thought to myself, "Jeff said the service started at 11. That's strange." So all three of us walked down the center aisle to the front pew (Protestant churches have benches called pews, the one in the front is usually the last to fill up.) and sat down.

The guy behind us leaned forward and asked it the little boy would like to go to sunday school. We thanked him but said no thanks. Then I asked, "is this Bay Hills Evangelical Free Church?" That was met by an odd look on the man's face. "No, this is Bay Hills Community Church". Athanasia asked, "Is Jeff Miller being ordained today?" "No, I don't think so"
I looked at my wife and said, "Uh oh! We're in the wrong church!"

So we stood up and walked right up the center aisle, past 3oo people, and out the door. Wow! That was embarrassing.

Now before I write anything else, I want to make a couple of comments on the service we were in, even though it was for less than 5 minutes.
1) Pastors, please, please, please, don't wear Hawaiian shirts on the platform. It does not make you look cool, hip, real, relaxed, or with-it. It makes you look like someone who read a book about church growth. So, please be a grown up and wear a tie. Or follow your spiritual ancestor, Martin Luther's example and wear an academic robe. But please, knock off the Hawaiian shirts. If you are not sipping a pina colada and wearing sandles you should not be wearing a Hawaiian shirt.
2) 3 guitars is 2 guitars too many.
3) The band and the back up singers should not be so loud that the congregation's voice can not be heard.
4) Please, kill the PowerPoint projector. I know this will be hard for you; all the cool Protestant churches use PowerPoint now. But trust me, it's hokey. A church service is not supposed to be like a shareholders meeting or like a briefing for an Army general. The church has survived a few thousand years without PowerPoint. I'm pretty sure the Levites weren't using to project Psalms on the Temple wall. And I know for a fact that when Jesus preached he didn't use it. All he did was talk to people and tell them stories about grain, and sheep, and stuff like that. You should do that too. More talking, less PowerPointing.
5) The woman drummer was cool, though. Don't see enough chicks banging the hi-hats.

Now back to the story.

We jumped in the car, grabbed a cell phone, called 411 and got the address of the correct BayHills church. Zoomed up the freeway, woops! all of a sudden the freeway (I-880 north) dissapeard. It forked into I-80 and I-580. At the last possible moment, not really knowing which was the right one to take, I took the wrong one and very quickly found my self driving in the absolutely wrong direction. In fact, we were driving across the Bay Bridge. ARRRRGGGHHHHH!!!!!

After a quick turn around on Yerba Buena Island, we zoomed back to the East Bay, sped onto I-580 and drove north to Hercules. We got lost on Appian Way (The numbers reverse their order. I hate it when that happens.) but we eventually made it to the right BayHills church.

We heard the last 10 minutes of a sermon about money. Or maybe it was about investing. Yeah, that was it. It was about how to have financial security. Hmmmmm. I'm sitting there thinking, "yeah, on the terrible Day of the LORD, I want to make sure to tell Jesus all about how I got a 12 % annual return on my savings. That will really impress him. Surely, he didn't really mean it when he said the worm and rust would eat up my stock certificates. And that James, such a radical, I know he must have been wrong." Now to be fair, I did only hear the last 10 minutes of the sermon, and the preacher was right when he talked about debt and how it keeps a person from doing with their money what God wants them to do with it. Nevertheless, when I think of great saints who lived in poverty, such as St. Xenia, St. Paul, St. Anthony, St. Mary of Egypt, and even our God, Jesus himself who said "foxes have holes, birds have nests, but the Son of Man doesn't have a place to put his head" - whenthink of them I have trouble getting excited about a sermon that seems to be more about the blessings of compound interest than about feeding the hungry. But again, I don't want to sound too harsh. The pastor was right about not wasting money and about not going into debt. After all, if you are wasting money or paying off debt, you can't do the good things with your money that God wants you to do with it.

Oh, the commissioning itself was pretty standard. The pastor called Jeff up to the front, he explained the Biblical authority for laying hands on Jeff, then he and several other people laid hands on Jeff and prayed for him. (They have three services each Sunday so they actually did this three times.)

An interesting personal story: It was seeing deacons ordained at PBCC that really drove home to me that I was no longer a Protestant. I had just finished reading the works of the second century bishop St. Iraneus of Lyons (in present day France). And as I was watcing the ordination I remembered something St. Iranaeus said about some heretics of his day: "Who laid hands on them?" (okay, yes, that is a very rough translation.) And then I thought, "I wonder who laid hands on these guys ordaining the deacons?"

One cool thing happened today. As we were doing all of this driving, the little boy was sitting in the back seat reading the new book his mother bought him. And just as I said to my wife (We were on the Bay bridge at the time), "God is doing this to us because he does not want us visiting any heretic churches!! "(I was near to angry.) I heard my little boy singing the Trisagion Hymn. It made me very happy. I'd like to say that was enough church for me, but for the Orthodox, as long as there is the possibility of more there is never enough. To quote Bishop Benjamin of Berkeley, "If one 'Lord, have mercy' is good, why not three? I three why not 12. If 12 why not 40? If 40, why not 144... FOUR TIMES!!!" I guess what I am saying, is that yes, I'm happy for my friend Jeff. He has worked hard for this. But I wish I had been at Holy Trinity today. But even that would not have satisfied. Someday, in Heaven, it will all be all Liturgy all the time. But instead of men carrying the incense to the altar there will be angels doing that job. Instead of Bishop Tikhon (Many Years!) presiding over the liturgy, Christ our High Priest and the Lamb will be presiding. Instead of mystery there will be revelation. All the doors will be open. We will see face to face. Every day, every second will be Pascha.

Fr. Victor

Well, if you click on the title of this post you will learn how he is doing. From my own limited observation, he seems steadier on his feet. In public his spirits seem good. I think he was pleased with the Lenten Retreat we just had.

Lenten Retreat - The first session

Tonight was the first session of my parish's lenten retreat. Archpriest Paul Tarazi is teaching on the book of Psalms. What follow are some of the things I learned, my thoughts, and some observations.

- Kings are kings because God makes them kings ("Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion." 2:6, not because they are the sons of kings. This is reflected even on british coins with their "Dei Gratia Regina" (or "D G REG F D" on modern Bristish coinage: The letters standing for the Latin words Dei Gratia Regina Fidei Defensor, which means 'By the Grace of God, Queen, Defender of the Faith'). Every King receives his authority directly from God, not from his physical father. ("I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou [art] my Son; this day have I begotten thee." Ps. 2:7)

- In semitic languages the word for city is feminine. The Gate is viewed as the vagina. the word for invading a city is the same word for rape. He said something about battering rams and acted like he was holding a telephone pole. At this all of the teenagers blushed. My mind flashed to an image of the Kanamara Matsuri (aka Japanese Penis Festival), with a bunch of drunken Salarymen carying giant wooden penises through the streets. Anyway, a kings major job is to keep his city from being invaded.

- Even in the Psalms that talk about how great the king is, his greatness is always predicated on his ability to rule justly. If he doesn't rule justly, he loses God's favor (non gratia), then he loses his throne.

- He talked alot about water, how water is a symbol of God's enemy. At creation, God subdued water, God parted the Red Sea, God divided the waters of the Jordan. Why is this important? Because, with the exception of Denver, all major cites are located next to water. Water kills people, but God says to the water "this far but no closer". He does not destroy the water, yet He controls the water. I wonder why Fr. Paul didn't mention the sea of Glass in the Apocalypse? If there were ever a scene of God controling the water and being King that is it.

-The King, who represents God (hopefully) does not do battle against the water, but against other enemies, enemies he is able to withstand - the "nations" or "heathen" of Psalm 2:6

- Something about the Hebrew word for "victory" and "salvation" being the same word, e.g. yeshua, that is Jesus. Hmmm. What does this say about works vs. grace? What does it say about being saved from sin and getting the victory over habitual sin?

- He talked a lot about Psalm 45. A major thing he noted was that even when the king is getting married he is still the king. He is never not the king. His bride is his subject, she is never not his subject. He gets married in war-fighting clothes. (here he mentioned the King of Jordan who at all of his weddings was married in a military uniform.) He also took verse 16 and tied it back into 2:7, saying that the king has no ancestors because his authority comes directly from God, he is always coronated - Elizabeth might die today but Charles doesn't become king until the Archbishop of Caterbury annoints him. He didn't go into it but I think that the 5th verse and the 16th verse might be talking about the same thing, based on Psalm 127:4 -5. And who are Gods arrows but His children? Hasn't He sent us out to speak with His enemies? By that I mean tell them the Good News?

Oh! I almost forgot - on the way home from San Francisco I turned on the radio to a crazy little college station and heard a vibrato and reverb laden raggae version of the Jackson Five's "I'll Be There". Nothing to strange about that but all of a suden, at the line that says "Reach o-o-o-o-o-u-u-u-u-t" there was a punctuation of a whacked out mariachi horn section that has to be heard to be believed. And the horns just kept on going and going in a Ring of Fire, Tijuana Brass, Cake kind of spine-tingling way. It was like Bob Marly's stepson crossed with the 3 of the Jackson Five crossed with a Catholic Mass in east L.A. But better.

Well, to bed to bed. But first I have to read a bunch of Psalms in preparation for tomorow mornings session.

I'm a baseball fan.

I'm a baseball fan. I used to pretty much hate all sports. But two things happened. I began reading the Wall Street Journal. I think I read it every day from 1992-1995, and I've read it regularly though not as often, since then. Why is reading a business newspaper important to my transformation into a basball fan? Because it contains the best sports writing of any publication in America. (It also has the best Christmas Eve editorial page of any newspaper ever. Among the always superb essays is the traditional In Hoc Anno Domini. And you can't go wrong spending your book-buying dollar by their book reviews, either.)

George Will writes for the Washington Post. But sometimes his work winds up in the Wall Street Journal. Usually he doesn't write about sports. Most often he writes about politics. But read this. And this. And this! That is great writing! And all of the sports writing in the Wall Street Journal is as good as that. So, thanks to good writing, I began to see sports as something more than a waste of time and money. I wasn't a fan, but the foundation of fan-hood had been laid.

What really made me a fan was following the Giants 2001 season. I had married a woman with season tickets and we went to every other home game together. Here are 9 things I learned:
1) Garlic fries are fabulous
2) The game of Baseball is not about one game. It is about the whole season.
3) There are no bad seats in what should be called Giants Ballpark.
4) It is fun to yell stuff at players and embarrass your wife.
5) Benny Santiago doesn't get a hit in the first 2 innings? Hey, there's always the 3rd.
6) Singing Take me Out to the Ball Game with thousands of other people during the 7th Inning Stretch is fun. (There is not enough public singing in America. I blame the record industry and radio for that.)
7) Its fun to get all judgemental on Barry Bonds, who after hitting the ball likes to watch and see if it is going to be a home run before he starts running to 1st.
8) Sometimes, the people in the stands around you are as entertaining as the players on the field. Like one time when a guy infront of me pulled out an electric razor and gave himself the most vigerous shave I have ever seen.
9) It takes about one inning to walk around the ballpark. And its a nice walk, too. Especially, out by right field where you can look at all of the boats in McCovey Cove.

Baseball season is well underway. Try to make it to a few games. Eat some garlic fries. Get a tan. Drink a cold beer. Watch grown men running around in funny clothes. Its better than almost anything else you could be doing.

Much relief! Much happiness!

I finally got in touch with one of my older children. Here is the news...

Devon the 15 year old: He is doing fine. Reading at college level. Wants to come visit this summer.

Billy the 16 year old: Working at a ranch, driving tractors, fixing fences, taking care of animals. Graduating from school early. (He was in reform school in his sophomore year and was so afraid of the other kids that all he did was school work. He managed to complete two years worth of work that year.)

I found out that they moved because they are buying a bigger house in the same neighborhood. Right now they are living in a rental waiting for the house to be finished.

Very importantly, he was able to give me his mom's cell phone number. I am much relieved.

Thank you, all who were praying.

Pictures

My mother, who has never seen this blog, says that because her sisters do read this blog I should put up more pictures of the big boy. Here are pictures my wife took on his 3rd birthday.

Time Change

I don't like the time change. I wish Congress would abolish it. Yes, I missed church this morning.

Last night just before the start of the vigil for the Adoration of the Cross, I talked to Ian. Now we have one godparent of each sex for the new baby. I talked to Anna on the Sunday of of St. Gregory Palamas. So, that is taken care of. But there are still many things to get firmed up.

Such as....

The 8th Day prayers and the namingof the child: Issue - Athanasia might not feel like driving to the cathedral in San Francisco. And Fr. Victor might still be sick, too. But if we do the prayers down here, the godparents will have to drive down, and one of them lives north of San Francisco in Marin County. Oh, what names are we considering? We are leaning toward these: Holy Martyr Zoe if a girl. But we'll use the Slavic pronunciation, Zoya. St. Basil of Moscow the Fool for Christ, if a boy.

And this...

The birth will be in San Jose. But our priests are in San Francisco. Will one of them be able to come down and say the prayer from the Book of Needs? All of these worries - I need to make an appoint ment to talk with Fr. Victor.

This day

Frustrating Thing: Spending 2 hours in heavy Friday afternoon traffic to get to church. Spending 1/2 hour looking for parking, but not finding it. Driving home without getting to go to church.

Fun Things: Got to go shopping for the property. Had to buy some plants. My gardener wanted me to pay him $65 for planting flowers in a little bit of dirt by the mail boxes. And not just any old flowers, either. He wanted to put flowers there that totally die during the winter and don't come back next spring. So I just went to the nursury and found some beutiful rosemary bushes (2 for $25.99) and some grape vines (Muscat of Alexandria and Cabernet). The rosemary is going in by the mail boxes. The grapes are going to replace some ugly rosebushes (I don't have enough money in the budget to pay the gardener to husband them as they need to be husbanded. And I don't have the knowledge.) by one of the driveways. Grapes are easy. Just tie them to a stake, prune them once a year, and all is good. Unfortunately, they will only get sun for 1/2 the day so they won't be producing useable fruit.

Thankful Things: Athanasia and the big boy drove to the San Jouaquin Valley town of Madera today. They were visiting her grandmother. I couldn't go. I had a move-in I had to be here for. I also had two contractors scheduled for today but they were no-shows. (It's Friday, you know.) Anyway, my wife and son got there and back safely. I am thankful for that. It is a long drive. But on the way there, they stopped at Casa de Fruta, a well known cultural institution in the hills between the Santa Clara Valley (aka Silicon Valley, aka Valley of Heart's Delight) and the San Jouquin Valley. The little boy fed the goats.

RANT: (Before you read this, click on the Valley of Heart's Delight link, above.) A few weeks ago, at the boy's birthday party (held early because of Lent), I said something about how I think all developed land should either be high density cities (such as San Francisco, Manhattan) or farm land, and that I think tracts of single family houses are poor stewardship of the land and contribute to the erosion of society. One young woman at the party said, "You don't like houses?"
"Just single-family detatched houses."
"Why?"
"A lot of reasons, but one is that they require huge amounts of roads and parking lots, and once you pave earth and destroy the topsoil you can never grow anything on it again."
Then she said something to me that showed me how bad the situation is. She said, "But what about back yards?"
I couldn't believe it. I had just talked about the destruction of productive land and she was thinking about back yards. I should have mentioned that suburbs make people fat.
My personal problem is that I am a classical liberal in the tradition of John Locke, and think that in general, people should be free to do what they want with what they own. But it just makes me sick to see beautiful orchards and vinyards destroyed.

Amusing Thing: As I was getting into the shower, the phne rang. I ran to get it. (It was the work phone.) But I didn't get there in time. Whoever called hung up. A second time, as I was getting into the shower the phone rang. I ran to answer it. Again, the caller hung up before I could answer it. So, as I was walking back to the bathroom, I saw the face off an old chinese lady (one of my tenants) looking in the side window. And she saw A LOT more of me than my face. I belive the expression is: The Full Monty. I thought she was going to die. I know I nearly did. As it turns out, she is the one who had called twice and hung up. She is very impatient so came looking for me. I hope that teaches her to let the phone ring more than 3 times before she hangs up.

More worries

The sheriff called me. No good news. They have moved. I called the school they attend but it is spring break and there was no one there who could help me. The woman who answerd the phone said that the younger of the two is still enrolled. I asked about his attendance but she didn't know anything. So, now I am just waiting for Monday.

If any of my family is reading this: I just got an email from my sister saying that Aunt Nettie called her to say that our cousin Jaime (Aunt Joey's youngest daugter) had surgery today for bone cancer in her ribcage and is facing both chemo and radiation.

Worry

I haven't heard anything from my two oldest sons since I sent the certified letters 3 weeks ago. Their mother signed for the letters but I don't know if she gave them to my sons. I just called the sheriff, and he is going to send a deputy out to their place in the country to make sure they are doing okay.

Presanctified Liturgy of St. Gregory

Okay, for the record, the Presanctified Liturgy is my favorite of the three liturgies I have done. That "let my prayer arise in Thy sight as incense" song is too beautiful for human ears. (To listen to an MP3 of it click here.) And the fact that it is sung while we all have our facees on the floor and are in a cloud of incense makes it even better. That is Heaven.

We didn't go to Holy Trinity in San Francisco tonight. Instead, we went to St. Nicholas in Saratoga. The abbot from the ROCOR monastery in Seattle (The home of my fave restaurant: The Brooklyn) was there. After the liturgy and after the putluck (Athanasia made Carolina cole slaw. YUM!) the abbot showed us PowerPoint slideshow about the construction of some new buildings. Well, let me take that back... It is a long story that involves the theft of $140,000 by a contractor (he is in prison now), at least one bona fide miracle, the abbot being assaulted, clergy from ROCOR, the Antiochian Archdiocese, and the OCA all working together, God speaking to nuns in Santa Rosa, a whole bunch of non-Orthodox donating time and materials to the building project, and John Ratzenberger donating land to a bunch of monks who were about to lose their dwelling. The new buildings are really just a small part of the story.

Now, as for the pot-luck: WOW! Primo dolmathes, and someone made this very yummy Indian dish out of cubed potatoes and garbonza beans.

Sorrow

A friend of mine has not been in church for a while. I called him to see if he is sick only to hear the worst news: He is excommunicated and says he is not ashamed for what he has done. If he who's conversion to Orthodoxy was accompanied by miracles and who's faith seemed unshakeable can be decived by heretics and a prideful heart, am I safe?

Contacting Congress

A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. Proverbs 12:10

Today I called my congressional delegation about the Schaivo case. All three of them, Mike Honda (D), Barbara Boxer (D) and Dianne Feinstein (D) are in favor of letting Mrs. Schaivo starve to death. Their staffs each had slightly different reposnses to my request. To each of them I said, "I think (name of legislator) should do something to save Teri Schaivo's life. It is wrong for the government to stand by and let her starve."

Dianne Fienstein's staff member said in a friendly voice: "Okay, thanks for calling. I'll pass that along to the senator."
Barbara Boxer's staff member tried to argue with me that the courts had made their decision and there was nothing the Congress can do. I didn't argue back, what would be the point? But as every fifth grader knows, Congress has the power to reverse the decision of any United States court.
Representative Honda's Staff member was friendly until I said my short little line. Then I could hear the change in the tone of his voice. He went from friendly to icy cold. He said "Okay. I'll tell Congressman Honda."

So as as Terri Scaivo starves to death all I can do is pray for her. And for us. We have wicked people governing us. Wicked people are being merciful to Terri Schaivo. God keep us from their tender mercies.

Wow! What a day!

Woke up at 7. Grabbed some bagels and coffee. (Note: I really hate it that the peanut butter most often used at bagle shops is Skippy. There are plenty of good peanut butters on the market. Adams and Maranatha come to mind. Unlike Skippy, shey have no hydrogenated oils. In fact, they are nothing but pure peanuts. ) Dropped Athanasia off at her office in Scott's Valley. (Today was her last day filling in there. The new manager starts tomorrow) From there the little boy and I drove through Felton and Santa Cruz and up the coast to Pigeon Point Lighthouse and looked at wild flowers. I know that there are people who disagree with me but California has the prettiest official flower of all of the 50 States. We just walked among the flowers watching the big black bumble bees and the tiny green humming birds fly from blossom to blossom.

From there the little boy and I drove south on the coast to Waddell Beach. The creek that empties into the ocean there was swollen from the recent rains. It was a good opportunity to teach the boy about salty nd fresh water. First I had him taste the ocean. Then we walked 50 feet up streem and tasted the creek. He thought it was neat and wanted to do it again. There were only 5 surfers, 2 runners, and a couple with a boy a liitle older than my Anselm. It was really strange. That beach is usually packed with people.

From there we drove to the little town of Bonny Doon and did some wine tasting at the Bonny Doon Winery. Just me. Not the boy. (Wooo Hoooo!!! This is our third of 4 in a row wine days! I love Annunciation!) They make the best Muscat I've ever tasted.

Then we drove the backroads from Bonny Doon to Scotts Valley and pick up my sweetie about 1:30 pm. Well, by that time we were all hungy so we zipped back down to Santa Cruz and went to our fave Greek place. No, not Prophet Elias Church. Though my brothers and sister there have a killer annual festival, I'm talking about Vasili's Taverna. The best - I mean the BEST dolmathes in California! I couldn't have any today because it its Great Lent, but they also have amazingly faubulous souvlaki - Opa! - which my "I'm pregnant and the priest says I get to eat anything I want to eat during Lent" wife enjoyed.

Since we were in San Francisco for services on Thursday and Friday for the Annunciation services we decided not to drive all the way up there again tonight. Instead we went to the Vigil for the Sunday of St. Gregory Palamas at the Church of St. Nicholas in Saratoga. (If you haven't heard Archpriest Basil's voice you have missed out on one the best liturgical singers in the OCA. In my opinion he is every bit as good as Father Paul Lazor of St. Vlad's.) Also, it was good to see my old friend John from San Francisco who now is the choir director in Saratoga.

Vigil of the Annunciation

I've been Orthodox for 2 years and tonight was my first opportunity to go to the festal vigil of the Annunciation. I loved it!

Deep Thoughts

I've been listening to a CD of the Orthodox funeral service. In one of the hymns is this line: "Where is that joy which is un-mixed with sorrow?" That is exactly the feeling I have watching the boy grow up. The little baby who's feet I held in one hand for hours in the hospital (they were cold and needed to be warmed) is gone. Now I have a little boy who runs and jumps and yells, who makes messes, and can count to 12, who can tell me me that Muscat grapes are "my very best favorite". But thankfully, he still says "kankyou". I think I might cry the first time I hear him say "thank you". Of course, I'm glad he is growing bigger, stronger, smarter, kinder. But where is that joy which is un-mixed with sorrow?

What I've learned so far during Lent, and other things.

What I have learned during Lent:
1) Peanut butter and honey tastes better on sourdough bread than on any other bread. The tangy-ness of the bread is a perfect compliment to the sweetness of the honey. The toughness of the crust is a beautful contrast to the creamy-ness of the peanut butter.
2) I am not worthy to be in the same Church as the 40 Martyrs of Sebaste.

In other news:
I had my anthropology final tonight. I am curious to see my grades in a couple of weeks.
I sold my books back to the bookstore. Got about $100 back on 4 books. That was good.
We got our box of vegetables from Two Small Farms. Lots of yummy things: Radishes, heritage carrots, spring garlic, green onions, kale, mixed greens. If you are not currently subscribing to a local farm and supporting community agriculture, please, consider it. The U.S.D.A. will provide you with a contact in your area.

Below is a recipe I made from the escarole that came in last weeks veggie box. It is very yummy, and if your bishop allows oil from non-olive sources Lenten, too!

Wilted Escarole
2 medium escarole (Not the root but the leafy part. The root is called chicory.) - rinsed, dried, and chopped
1/2 cup lemon juice (It took three fresh lemons to produce this much juice.)
20 dark pitted olives (I like kalamata)
3 tablespoons capers non pareil, just barely chopped
fresh ground black pepper to taste
sea salt to taste
3 Table spoons canola oil

Heat oil in jarge pan over high heat. Add escarole. Stir until escarole just egins to wilt. Stir in lemon juice. Add all other ingredients and stir for another 30 seconds. Eat.

The last few days

Friday- Liturgy of Pre-Sanctified Gifts

Saturday - Athanasia and I made dinner for my parents and took to them. It was a nice time. They are both doing better in the health dept. Neither is well, but they are both better than they were.

Sunday- Litrugy in the morning. Lunch with my wife's sister and her husband. He is a recently unemployed corporate defense lawyer. Do you know anyone looking for an anti-anti-trust attorney with a lot of software industry litigation experience?

Today (the big boy's true birthday.) - Bought oil for the car, put one of my shoes in for a repair, deposited the big boys birthday money in the bank. After that we went to Santa Cruz. Played in the sand. Looked for sand crabs. It was cold and rainy. Didn't get in the water. We played played ski-ball and bought saltwater taffy from Marinis on the Boardwalk. Afer we came home I did a little work in the office, then went to school. Tonight was the last regular class sesssion before finals. There was a very short lecture about Canadian Eskimos and the demise of their traditional way of life.

Last night: Canon Part 4

Last night I went to St. Stephen's in Campbell but I had to leave early. I had left the house with it being in kind of a nutty state and didn't feel good about being in church with my wife being at home dealing with problems. I shouldn't have left home the first place. But after standing in church for about 15 minutes saying prayers abot how I really suck, I realized I should be home helping my wife.

In our relationship she is the Martha, I am the Mary. That is not intended as a criticism. Her Martha-ness keeps our house running. When I got home the chaos was gone. All was orderly. I wasn't needed there, after all.

But, it turns out that Godmother wasn't at church either. So there we were, 4 Orthodox Christians on Clean Thursday and none of us in church!. UGHHH! This was a problem. (Cue the Mission Impossible music). So, I quickly printed three copies of last night's portion of the Great Canon, Athanasia lit the candles, and Godmother came over for prayer. I read the Eirmos. Athanasia read the Troparia. Godmother read everything else. The "big boy" played with purple and gold Lenten book mark from the Bible. It was very very good!

After prayer Athanasia read out loud to me and the little boy. What did she read? The Water-babies by Charles Kingsley. I must tell you, this is one of the best childrens books ever written. It also contains very excellent examples of polemic. Kingsly was a master rhetoritician who in fun, nearly lyrical language mocks science for thinking it knows.

Tonight is the presanctified liturgy of St. Gregory the Great. Because I haven't been to Confession in a while I won't be able to approach the Mystery, but it will be good to merely be in the same room with the Lord, and watch as others Commune.

It has been a rainy day. The "big boy" and I have been playing indoor baseball. If he holds the bat still I can make the ball bounce off of it.

Soda Bread

Yes, we made Irish soda bread today. (Thanks to Huw's suggestion of substituting a soy product for a dairy product.) The "big" boy and I assembled all the ingredients, put an Icon of St. Patrick on the table, offered thanks to God for sending St. Patrick to our ancestors and for letting us make the bread in his honor. ("Why did you do that, Daddy?" "Because, if it had not been for Patrick, we might not be Christians today.") We measured, mixed, kneaded, and baked. The big boy helped at every stage. He is very good ad "dumping out" the ingredients into the mixing bowl. We cut a cross on the top of the dough just before putting it in the oven. We kissed it, of course. How sappy can you get??!! When my wife reads this she'll probably think I'm nuts. It tastes pretty good. Below is the recipe modified from Julia Child's recipe found in the book Baking With Julia.

Ingredients:
4 Cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking flour
1.5 teaspoons salt
2 cups vanilla soy milk (substitution)
handfull of raisins (not in the original recipe)

Preheat oven to 375 F
Grease a pie pan (I like using canola oil for this) and set it aside until later.

Put flour, soda, and salt in to a large mixing bowl and stir with a fork to thouroughly blend the dry ingredients. Add soy milk and stir with much gusto until the dough comes together in to a moist ballish kind of thing. It will not look tidy like pie dough but will definately look like dough. Stir in the raisins. Dump the dough on to a lightly floured table and knead vigoursly for 1 minute, but do not overwork he dough. Pat the ball of dough in to a think hocky puck with a diameter of about 6 inches. Place the dough in the center of your pie pan. (It won't touch the sides. Don't worry about that.) Cut a cross in the top: Two 4" long x 1/2" deep strokes of the knife should do the trick. Pop it into the preheated oven for about 50 minutes. Take it out of the oven and let it cool to just above room temperature before slicing. It is very good for dunking and as a platform for spreadables. Goes good with black coffee.

St. Patrick's Day

Having St. Patrick's Day fall during Great Lent is kind of a bummer. No corned beef. No soda bread. No whisky. But here is what I did this year: For my two oldest sons I put together a book containing the Confession of St. Patrick. I found some cool looking "celtic" fonts and some Icons of St. Patrick with the help of google. I put it all in Word. Printed it out cut the pages down to size with scissors. Glued them to green constuction paper, and bound them with green yarn. The final result looked better than I thought it would. Today, it was mailed to them with a tin of McCann's Irish Oatmeal. (they are too young for whisky, beer, or Waterford.) I haven't figured out what to do with my wife and youngest son. Any suggestions?

Lent Has Begun

O Lord and Master of my life take from me the spirit of sloth, faint-heartedness, lust of power, and idle talk.
But give rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love to thy servant.
Yea, O Lord and King grant me to see my own errors and not to judge my brother; for Thou art blessed unto the ages of ages.
Amen.

Four Weeks Ago

Four weeks ago I wrote here on this site that something wonderful was happening but that I couldnt tell you about it at that time. Now I can. My wife is pregnant with a child. Due mid-October.

Encouragement

In my prior life as a protestant I sinned a lot. I mean really huge gross horrific sins. My sins were so great that even the pagan culure around us would have been appaled by some of them. But I enjoyed them. I committed them boldy. After all, Martin Luther said, "Sin boldly" , and besides that as a Calvinist, I believed that my behavior did not matter at all, that God had decided long before He created anything, who was going to Hell and who was going to Heaven.

But now I am Orthodox. Now I see my past sins and loathe them. I want to be free of even the memory of them. But even though I hate them they are aways near me, inside my mind, waiting to atack me. When I am awake they try to sneak in, but I take refuge in the Theotokos, the Trisagion, and in the Jesus Prayer. When the memories of evil deeds plague my dreams I can not pray for I am asleep, but rising quickly I can pray in the morning. (I understand why monks rise at midnight to pray.) So, in those ways I push back against the wickedness. But the fight does not seem to let up. They are always lurking, waiting for an idle minute when they can come charging back into my mind. Lately, I have wondered if I am alone in this struggle, this war against the memories of sins long ago absolved. I've asked myself, "Am I the only one?"

But just now on Huw's blog (Thanks, Huw.) I saw in his "Patristic Roulette" feature these words by St. Anthony the Great:

"Guard yourself, that your mind be not fouled with the memory of former sins, and that the memory of them be not renewed within you."

He didn't say the fight would get easier, but at least now I know others have fought, and are fighting this battle, too.

St. Anthony, you who overcame, pray for us that we will overcome, too.

Two things

Now is the crunch time for school. Much much homework.

Today, however, was spent getting ready for the little boy's birthday party, which will be tomorrow if the Lord tarries. We made a pound of butter to go on the scones. (The little boy's godmother helped churn it.) We made the cupcakes today, too. Tomorrow morning Athanasia will make the scones and frost the cupcakes. We have two gallons of orange juice and 6 bottles of champagne at the ready. I love scones. I don't know what all we are having, but I did see a great number of berries in the refrigerator. Athanasia is kind of doing this party.

Huw posted these words of the Venerable Seraphim of Platina on his blog:

"Weak and forgetful, even in the midst of the Great Fast we live as though Jerusalem did not exist for us. We fall in love with the world, our Babylon; we are seduced by the frivolous pastimes of this "strange land" and neglect the services and discipline of the Church which remind us of our true home. Worse yet, we love our very captors - for our sins hold us captive more surely than any human master - and in their service we pass in idleness the precious days of Lent when we should be preparing to meet the rising sun of the New Jerusalem - the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

"There is still time; we must remember our true home and weep over the sins which have exiled us from it. Let us take to heart the words of St. John of the Ladder: Exile is separation from everything in order to keep the mind inseparable from God. Exile loves and produces continual weeping. Exiled from Paradise, we must become exiles from this world if we hope to return. "

These words go with the Psalm below.

Dashing babies agains the rocks

At the last few church services I've been to this has been sung:

"By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the LORD'S song in a strange land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy. Remember, O LORD, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof. O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us. Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones."

Lent is nigh.

J.I. Packer, F.F. Bruce, R.C. Sproul and one Really Big Question

The Anglican, J.I. Packer was one of my heros back when I was a protestant. My dad gave me a copy of his book "Knowing God" back in 1982. I ate it up. I became a huge fan. I loved it when his essays would appear in the pages of Christianity Today. Whenever a copy of the magazine would arrive I would look first to see it Packer had anything in it.

It was Packer who introduced me to the The Westminster Confession of Faith and its majestic-sounding words regarding the Bible:

"The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man’s salvation, faith, and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit, or traditions of men. (Chapter 1, para 4)"

I don't think I'd heard about Sola Scriptura at that point, I was only 13, but I had been reading about the baptists' "Battle for the Bible". Anyway, I agreed with it and it became a part of me, and I professed with confidence until 2001.

In 2001, after Scott Hahn and Peter Kreeft had broadsided me and done an unbelieveable amount of damage to my Protestant understanding of the Bible and the Church, I looked to J.I. Packer again. And I found lots of really great stuff about the inspiration and reliability of the Bible. But nothing that answered this question: "How do we know we have the right books in the Bible?"

I went to a local evangelical protestant bookstore, told the girl behind the counter what question I needed answered and she directed me to The Canon of Scripture by F.F. Bruce. (I'd read some of his commentaries so I knew he was a heavy-weight.) But Bruce did not answer the question. In fact, he lead me to belive that Kreeft and Hahn were right! My protestant identity was on the ropes. Sola Scriptura was laid out on the canvass and the referee was counting to ten. I but before the ref could call the fight I thought I would read some R.C. Sproul. Spoul is kinda famous for defending the Solas of the Reformation so I figured he must have an answer to this question. And there, in part 1 of "The Essential Truths of the Christian Faith" I saw them... The 9 words that would forever drive me from Protestantism: "The canon is a fallible collection of infallible books."

Now I must admit that in one of Kreeft's or Hahn's books I came across this quote that was attributed to Sproul. But I figured it must have been attributed in error. Why? Because I hoped it was an error. But then I saw it for myself, and when I read Sproul's whole argument (The essence of the argument is this: The collection can't be infallible because that would mean the church is infallible, and we know that can't be true.) I realized that I could no longer be a protestant. I could no longer believe in Sola Scriptura. I did not share with the protestants their low view of the Church.

So, at that point I knew what I did not belive (e.g. sola scriptura). And I knew what I believed (e.g. that the Bible is true.) But I didn't know where the Church was. But thanks be to God, for by His providence there was a Collection of Schaff's Books in the PBCC library. In those books I met St. Ireneus of Lyons, St. Ignatius of Antioch, St. Cyprian of Carthage, and many other Church Fathers (and a few heretics!). And those Saints lead me down the road that eventully delivered me into the arms of the Church which not only recognizes , discovers, or catalogues Holy Scriptures but which truely wrote the Holy Scriptures.

Love

Ellie on Manilla Drive posted this list of kids' definitions of love. This registers very high on the Cute Meter.

Aspergillum

I have a priest friend who does not have an aspergillum. So I went shopping today to buy one for him. STICKER SHOCK!!!! Everyting I found was priced between $200 and $500!!! So I made one for him instead.
Here is how I did it.

Materials:
-Seven 20-inch long slender, pliable branches from olive, juniper, and walnut trees. (If you have the trees this is free.)
-One spool of 26 guage drawn copper wire. $2.00 (I looked for gold or silver, but I could only find plated. I don't like using plated stuff for church. Feels phoney to me.)

Tools:
-Kitchen knife
-Needle-nose pliers

Total time from start to finish (includes climbing trees to cut branches and going to store to buy wire): 3 hours

Directions:
1. strip the bark off of all of the branches.
2. Split the branches in 1/2 from one end, going down about 8 inches.
3. Then spit into 4ths, then 8ths. 16ths is ideal, but it is difficult unless your knife is very sharrp. My knife wasn't so after ruining a lot of sticks I settled for 8ths.
4.Bundle the sticks together so all the split ends are at ond end of the bundle.
5. Wrap one loop around the whole ends of the bundle (about 1.5 inches from the very end.) and tie it off.
6. Cut the wire and tuck the ends into the bundle so that they can not bee seen.
7. Below the loop begin weaving the wire in and out of the sticks. This creates a wedge so that as the sticks dry they won't fall out.
8. Begin wrapping wire around the bottom of the sticks. Continue wrapping until you have a good copper handle.
9. At the top of the handle (e.g. the end of the handle closest to the split ends of the sticks) do some more wedging.
10. Tie the wire tightly and tuck the end into the bundle.

Now everytime your priest splashes Holy Water on someone, you get to be part of the action.

A House Blessing

I know, I know. This is way after Theophany, but life gets busy and next thing you know its the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee and your house still hasn't been blessed. So, Fr. David and a whole bunch of other people from the parish came down to our apartment and began the blessing, then we processed through the courtyard around the pool to the "big boy's" godmother's apartment and finished the service there.

Just before the start of the service I grabbed three of my tenants and had them come in and help pray. They are one-ness pentecostals. (a strange mixture of sabellianism and montanism). They ducked out during the procession but at least they got to see a little bit of real Christianity.
During the procession another tenant popped out of her apartment and watched. Later, we talked and I answered some questions for her.

For the party after the blessing we ate a ton of meat. (After all, this is our last day for it until Pascha.) We had rice pilaf with roasted duck, pork loin and plums in a reduced balsamic rosemary sauce, champagne, many deserts, watermelon Italian sodas, grilled sausages with cranberry mustard & spicey chutney, and a bunch of other stuff.

Pretty exhausted now. Athanasia and the boy have been in bed for 1 hour. I'm going to do the last of the dishes, have the last slice of pork loin and then get ready for bed myself.

Last Bacon

Today has been a very good day so far. Woke up just a few minutes before 8. Athanasia was heading out the door. I don't know what time she woke up. Must have been early.

I was up late last night reading Bros. Karamozov. I think a person has to know about 17th & 18th century French philosophy, the Orthodox Church, the Bible, and pre-communist Russian history to really understand this book. I am sure that I am missing half of what is being said. Nevertheless, I've been in tears twice with this book(once for pity on one of the characters, once because I saw myself in another character and didn't like what I saw), and I'm only on page 77.

The little boy and I cleaned up the lampada. It hadn't been cleaned since Christmas of 2003. It was looking kind of scuzzy. Then we did morning prayers.
Then we ate the last of the bacon. It will be the last bacon until Pascha.

Tomorrow is the Sunday of the Last Judgement, the last day for eating meat until the priest blesses the "fleshmeats" on Pascha so, technically, we could have bacon for breakfast tomorrow, except, we are going to Communion (if we can make it to Confession tonight.) so there won't be any breakfast tomorrow. With the bacon we had eggs, yogurt, almonds, a clementine, and coffee. I gave a hadfull of almonds to the squirrel when he came inside.

The little boy was curious when I made the sign of the cross over the squirrel and told him to enjoy his breakfast and stay outside. (The squirrel likes to come in to the house). "Why did you do that?"
"We bless the squirrel because it is God's creation."
"You gave it peace"
"Yep, and told it to stay outside."
"You love the squirrel?"
"Yes, but not as much as I love you."
Laughs.

Now the little boy is out looking for snails and worms after last night's rain. I'm about to start in on a mountain of homework.

Today is the 4th anniversary of the day I met my wife face-to-face. (Well, sort of. We think we knew each other 6 weeks before we married. But we also think we met on March 5th. It doesn't quite add up.) I had tried to meet her before, but she said the place I wanted to meet was too far away from where she lived. (For the record, she was about 40 miles closer to the proposed meeting site than I was.) So our meeting was delayed about a week. As soon as she walked into the little coffee house by the beach I was in love. In the few years since we met there, the little cafe has gentrefied but it is still a nice place.

I See Stupid People (well, just one stupid congresswoman)

Rep. Maloni: My question was the statement by 2042, the entire system will be bankrupt. It will not be bankrupt, I agree the trust fund will be gone, but there will still be the money coming in from the payroll taxes -- enough to pay, by all accounts, three-quarters of the benefits. Is that true or not?

Chairman Greenspan: It's true in dollar terms, but I suspect it may not be true in real terms. And the reason I'm saying that: if we cannot get full funding and the savings required to build up the capital stock in time for 2042's production of goods and services, yes, the individuals may have the cash, but the cash will not buy as much as they think it would be. The real problem has got to be real resources, and this issue of whether or not the OASI goes bankrupt or not bankrupt is an interesting legal and political question, but it really doesn't get at the economics of the retirement of individuals, the 30 million additional individuals.

Rep. Maloni: That's true, but the point is, in 2042, the entire system is not bankrupt.

Bishop Benjamin

Yesterday I skipped school and went to vespers. It was served by Bishop Benjamin of Berkeley. After the service (about 30 minutes long) he answered questions. I think must know EVERYTHING about liturgical development, not just in the Orthodox Church but in the Syrian, the Armenian, Coptic and western churches, too. I only had one small question: How are we supposed to do evangelism. He had a very long answer that boils down to this: Be filled with the Holy Spirit and when people ask you where you go to church ask them to "come and see".

It was interesting to hear that he was raised in the Plymouth Bretheren. You can't get much deeper into the iconoclast heresy than that. (The church he attended didn't even have a cross on the wall.) He makes, besides myself, the 3rd person I've met who's conversion to Orthodoxy involved an overwhelming experience during his first visit to an Orthodox temple.

Letters

Today I am mailing more letters to my two oldest sons, soon to be 16 and 17. I haven't heard from them since last spring. Their mother doesn't have a phone. The sherriff of their county went out to their place in the country and checked on them for me. He said they were okay. But I haven't talked to them in such a long time. I write to them every week. I never hear a word back. Maybe they don't get the letters. Today, I'll send them via certified and ask for a return receipt.

Butter (cont.)

The butter turned out okay. Better than okay. It is amazing! And it was fun to make, too. Athanasia, the little bo... whoops!... the "big boy" and I took turns shaking the cream. We put two pints of heavy cream in a 1 liter plastic container, added a big marble and shook it a long time. We had whipped cream in a jiffy, but it was a long long time (15 minutes?) before the whipped cream turned into butter. So, in case you are wondering, 2 pints of heavy cream yields about 1/2 pound of butter and a glass of butter milk. But this is not like the buttermilk sold in stores. The kind bought in stores isn't really buttermilk. It is "cultured buttermilk", a fermented milk product. What we made yesterday was sweet, or "old fashioned" buttermilk. (Dr. David Frankauser will happily explain the difference.) In short, sweet buttermilk is yummy, while cultured buttermilk is reminiscent of baby puke. I think I might have to make butter every week just to get some of that yummy buttermilk. Of course, that will be after Great Lent.

Butter

Yep! We're making butter today. Been at it for a while. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Wild Mushroom and Sausage Lasagne Rustica

Below is the recipe for the Lasagne I built yesterday. The key is quality ingredients. If a cook skimps on ingredients the final result is not as wonderful as it could be, and reflects poorly on the cook. Always, use only the finest ingredients you can find. God has given us beautiful things to eat. So be thankful to him, and also reward the craftsmen and farmers who work so hard to produce the best ingredients.


For the Red Pepper Sauce
1/2 pound lean italian spicy sausage (I perfer Whole Foods sausage recipe but any butcher who takes his work seriously will serve you well.)
1/2 pound lean italian mild sausage (Again, I prefer Whole Foods meat counter for this.)
2 table spoons cooking-quality olive oil
1 pound white mushrooms, sliced 1/4 to 1/8 inches thick
2 1/4 cups finely chopped yellow onion
3-6 large garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon fresh rosemary needles, minced
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (this ammount can vary wildly because "red pepper" on a spice jar label can mean almost anything.)
4 red bell peppers, finely diced but not minced
2 1/2 pounds plum tomatoes, finely diced but not minced
Ham fat, as needed


For Wild Mushroom Sauce
2 ounces dried porcini mushrooms
1 1/2 cup hot water
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) butter (not margerine)
1/4 cup all-purpose flour (I prefer Gold Medal brand. King Arthur is good, too.)
2 cups non-fat milk (Horizon Farms and Strauss Family Creamery are my local favorites, with Berkely Farms in a close third.)
Freshly grated nutmeg, to taste

Other Ingredients
1 box of Ronzoni oven ready lazagne
2 cups coarsely grated mozzarella cheese. Do not skimp on the cheese. Buy full-fat, high moisture.
2 cups coarsly grated Parmesan cheese. (Remember, if it is not made in Parma, Italy, it is not Parmesan cheese. I'm not kidding about this. If it comes in a box with a green lid it is not Parmesan cheese.)
Balsamic vinegar, just a splash.

Making the Red Pepper Sauce
In a 12" cast iron pan, cook the the sausage (if it has casings remove them before cooking) over medium heat, stiring it and breaking it up. Using a slotted spoon, transfer cooked sausage to a bowl. If thee is more than 1 table sppon of fat in the pan pour off the excess. If there is less than 1 table spoon of fat in the pan, add some ham fat (reserved in your freeszer from the last time you cooked a ham) until you have 1 tablespoon of hot liquid fat in the pan. Ad 1 tablespoon of olive oil, white mushrooms, salt and pepper to taste. Cook white mushrooms on medium heat until all water given off is evaporated and mushrooms are the color of milk caramel. Stir in onions, rosemary, red pepper flakes, garlic, salt and pepper to taste. Cook until onions have softened. stir in the bell peppers and tomatoes. Cook uncovered on medium heat for about 20 minutes. Stir often. Add sausage and cook for five more minutes.

Making the Wild Mushroom Sauce
In a small bowl soak the porcini mushrooms in hot water for 30 minutes. Drain muchrooms in a seive, making sure to reserve 1 cup of the liquid. In a heavy saucepan melt the butter over low heat. Stir in flour to make a roux, whisking for 3 to 4 minutes. Add milk and reserved liquid from porcini mushrooms, bring to a boil while whisking constantly. stir in porcini mushrooms, nutmeg (I only use 1/2 a teaspoon). salt and pepper to taste. Simmer over low heat whisking often until thickend, about 4 or five minutes.

Assembling the Lasagne
Pre-heat oven to 375 F.
In a large bowl of very cold water (Consider using ice cubes or refrigerated water if your tap water is warmer than 50 F.) soak the lasagne until soft, about 10 to 15 minutes. Drain the squares but do not pat them dry. Just shake the excess water off.
Use remaining olive oil to prepare a 13" x 9" baking dish.
In a small bowl mix the grated Parmesan and mozzerella cheeses together.
Layer 1 - Spread a small amount of the red pepper sauce in the bottom of the pan.
Layer 2 - Arrange three lasagne sheets on top of the sauce.
Layer 3 - Spread some of the mushroom sauce on top of the lasagna.
Layer 4 -Spread some cheese on top of the mushroom sauce.
Repeat layering until all lasagne sheets, red pepper sauce, mushroom sauce, and cheese has been put in the baking dish.
When the top layer of cheese has been put on splash with a little balsamic vinegar and put it in the middle of the oven 40 minutes. Remove from oven and let stand 10 minutes before serving.

I think this would be a fun dish to prepare with someone you love.

Happy eating!

Three Friends

Today was a good day. Woke up early and built a wild mushroom and sausauge lasanga rustica. I'd never made lasagna before. It is a fairly complicated recipe with two wildly different sauces but it was good. The reason I made the dish is that my friends Jeff and Rick came over for lunch. I've known both of them since 1993. Was room mates with Rick for a while. We used to make late night runs to Denny's. Back then we were both extremely poor. Rick taught me about eating at happy hours. We knew when every bar in the area had a happy hour and we would go, order one drink, eat a bunch of free food and then leave. We think that we might have put a couple of the happy hours out of business. Anyway, it was good to be with my friends.

Oh, in case you are wondering, there are even more reasons besides those I have enumerated previously to hate suburbs consisting of single-family detached houses. Not only do they destroy communities of the living, they also molest the final resting places of war dead.

Gene Scott is Dead

If you never saw Gene Scott on T.V. you will not understand why this guy was so great.

Back in the 1960's Gene was the pastor of a big A.G. church in Glendale. My Dad was pastor of a big P.C.G. Church in Higland View. (Both are in L.A.) They were both fairly prominent in their respective denominations. But Gene went whacko. There is no doubt that he was an educated man. He had a Stanford Ph.D. but he was nuts.

According to my dad, Gene's bizarre behavior began in the early 1970's with rumors of fraud and an investigatin by his denomination. Eventually, he was either kicked out of, or volutarly left the A.G.

He wen't totally off the deep end in 1977. I will never forget the time he lined up a bunch of wind-up monkeys and said, "this one is Governor Brown, this one is the Attorney General, this one is..." and he wen't on to name all of his accusers.

And some of his cigars were huge!!!!! I mean they were monsterous!!!! The enormity of the man's tobacco was was beyond words. And what fire he could shoot out of them! It was as though he was a human flame thrower. Sometimes, it would take him 5 minutes for him to get the things lit. And the whole five minutes the camera would be getting a close up of his face. It was crazy!

Sometimes he would sit and read other people's books to his T.V. audience, stop after about an hour and say "Man, this is good teaching. You gotta pay for teaching like this. Get on the telephone." Then he would walk off the set until enough people called in to donate money. And when he was off the set the crew would run tape of him or his wife riding one of his 300 horses. Or even more strangly, a live shot of his empty chair for 15 or 20 minutes at a time.

In the early 1980's he taught on the pyramids. It was fascinating. Utterly useless and possibly heretical, but fascinating none the less. Especially, to the 12 year old boy I was then.

But when he taught on the Bible, he was brilliant. There might not be another man in the late 20th century who had more knowledge about the Bible than Gene Scott. His preaching on Ruth and the kinsman-redeemer had me in tears for several nights as I watched the telecast in my childhood. It was amazing preaching. But I remember thinking, "What he is saying is true but he doesn't belive it".

One thing that a lot of people do not understand about Gene Scott is that he wasn't just a hedonist. He was a telological hedonist. I believe he was really trying to find Salvation by follwing the Reformation (particularly Martin Luther's) teaching on Galatians. But his egoism was nearly unbearable.

Now that he has certainly met God, I hope Gene recognized Him as the peace he never seemed to have on earth.

Much rain yesterday. I don't watch the news, but I've heard that the storms killed three people. But this morning, it looked like it was going to be a much less rainy day.

So we jumped out of bed, ran and got bagels and coffee at House of Bagels, and then drove to San Francisco. Our final destination? Stowe Lake in the heart of Golden Gate Park. We rented a rowboat and went around the perimiter of the whole lake. We saw many turtles sunning themselves, mallards and cormorants and gulls floating. At one point we had a flock of gulls swiming along behind us in the wake of our bark. We rowed past the Japanes Pagoda, under the "Roman" bridge and the old "rustic" bridge. We avoided the speed demons in the paddle boats. (We didn't rent one because they cost an extra $2 per hour and besides, we weren't in a hurry.) It's funny, all the years I lived here I've never been rowing on the lake. Today was the first time for all three of us. I wish we had taken a camera.

This day

Woke up too early. Got the boy dressed. Got the food together. Got out the door. Unfortunately, got to church too late to do a confession. (The proskimede was already going on.) So, no communion for me. A little bummed by that. Lunch at church went well. Arnold palmers didn't move well. I think we have a wine crowd. Next time we'll just serve wine.
Speaking of wine, tonight with dinner (chateaubriand (it was on sale for 1/2 price!), raw milk blue cheese aged in caves in the Alsace-Lorraine, gala apples, grueyere, bagguetts, mixed greens salad with lemon tahini dressising.) I had a bottle of 1998 Napa valley syrah. It was amazing.

Oh, Father Victor liked his birthday cake today. Athanasia made 4 three layer carrot cakes. I can hardly stand to see him suffering like this. He has lost most of his hair. But he seems to be bearing it patiently. God sustains, especially in difficult circumstances.

Anthropology

Two interesting stories in the news:
1) A prominent anthrpologist is found to be a fraud. He was making up the carbon-14 dates.
2) It seems that the tomb of St. Paul has been rediscovered.

Cooking

Cooking for the parish tomorrow.
Baked: 3 bone in shank-end hams
Chopped: An entire field of onions, ditto carrots, mushrooms
Baked: 3 cakes

We'll get to church early. Hopefully, there will be a priest available to hear my confession. Then, I'll run down stairs and help Athanasia with the cooking. Our goal: Have every thing finished by the chanting of the Creed so we can be back in the temple before Communion.

Dresden and the rules of War

Fr. John Whiteford has written something in response to some Germans feeling victimized by the British firebombing of Dresden. It is grim. It is worth reading.

I'm So Glad Jesus Set Me Free

I first believed the Gospel and was baptised when I was 8 years old. At about the age of ten I began to wonder about the doctrines that are wrapped up in words like election, sovereignty, and free-will. By the time I was 16 I was completely convinced of the truth of Calvinism. (My dad, who is Arminian was not happy about this.) I am so glad the Orthodox Church found me before I did something as stupid as getting a tatoo of TULIP on my arm.

Man, I feel better.

So, after last nights bad news regarding the math test I was pretty much bummed out. I couldn't get to sleep until after two this morning. I kept thinking "If I can't pass this class, what am I going to do?" Tonight I met with a counselor. She said "You shouldn't be in that class. That's for engineering majors. You were supposed to take this class" In short, I had registered for a class I was not prepared to take. Boy what a relief that was. So, I can drop the class I'm in now without damaging my GPA and take the class I qualified for next quarter. Man, I wish I'd talked to the couselor before I registered for this quarter. It would have saved me a huge headache. But I am surprised that I was allowed to enroll in a class for which I wasn't qualified.

Evangelism via food in my anthropology clas

The assignment: "Bring to class a food item from another culture. Describe how it is prepared, and talk about any ceremonial use."

I made kolyva. (3 cups boiled wheat grains, 2 cups finely chopped toasted pecans, 2 cups honey. Cross of raisins on top.)

I talked about how the family brings the kolyva to church, described some of the prayers, talked about Jesus' ressurection and our resurrection. Talked about how kolyva is sweet because for a Christian death is no longer bitter, quoted Jesus' words about a grain of wheat falling to the groud. Everyone seemed to like the kolyva.

Response? Two (out of 30) people asked me for more information. Taking books to them on Wednesday.

In other news, I thought I understood what I was doing in Statistics and Probability. I was wrong. I just got the results back from the midterm exam. Worst grade I have ever received. It is looking less likely that I will pass this course. Oh, well. I can take it again next quarter.

Valentine

This isn't about any of the three people known as Saint Valentine. This is about my wife.

On St. Valentine's Day four years ago I was sitting in a restaurant with a woman I knew I was going to break up with. There were several reasons for the soon-to-occur break up. One of them was that 8 days before this dinner, I had become aware of the woman to whom I am currently married.

Don't Let the Perfect be the Enemy of the Good.
After a long time of dating a lot of women (over 100 in a 2 year period) and not finding "The One" I had pretty much decided to settle for less than perfect. She was nice - an accountant, about 11 years younger than me. And I had pretty much decided that I would settle. She was good. Except, I was still looking for perfect.

Happily Ever After
When I tell my little boy stories they always start the same way - Once upon a time. Not today. Not yesterday. But a long long time ago.... And they always end the same way - And they lived happily ever after. The 1990's were bitter years. It was like I was in some kind of surreal fairy tale wherein the wolf was after me but I kept running in reverse, from the brick house, to the stick house, to the straw house. My sister thinks I had some kind of death wish. I don't think that was true, but I was very unhappy. Oh, I knew how to have a good time. I was quite a bon vivant. A good-time charley. It is amazing how much fun you can have when you are desperately trying to keep dispair from breking down your door. "Happily ever after"? No, the "ever after" I was accustomed two was starting my day off with a cup of gin, the smell of old cigar smoke in my hair, and most terribly, aloneness and purposelessness.

But then a woman walked into my life in the most strange way. Amazingly, she was the perfect I had been looking for and not finding. It wasn't easy. I'd been living for myself for so long that it was a struggle to live for her. But as I learn to do that, I see that "happily ever after" is here right now.

Four years ago on this day, Athanasia and I had not actually met. But already she was having an impact on my life. We would meet a few weeks later, and marry 6 weeks after that. I cant even begin to tell you how happy I am that I didn't settle for good, but stumbled across perfect.

This morning

Couldn't go to church this morning due to plumbing emegerncy. (There is a problem with the pipes here. Copper is joined to galvanized. Watter running through the joints causes a charge to build up on the galvanized. The charge acts like a catalst for rust and broken pipes.) Anyway, I was able to do morning prayers before the plumber got here. I also took a little test to see how well I know my own language. Not very well, it seems.

Here are my results.


You are a STUDENT of the English language!

You are on your way to becoming
gramatically sound; however, you must keep
studying if you ever want to become a master.
You do manage to speak better than most
Americans, but then again, that's not really
saying too much. Keep studying, little
Student.

How grammatically correct are you? (Revised with answer key)
brought to you by

BARF!!!!!

What is going on?!?! Has Rome lost its mind? When I first saw this I was embarassed for the priest. Then I started giggling. But now I feel kinda sad. I hope this never happens in the Orthodox Church. I doubt it would be Orthodox anymore. Why? Because, the focus would no longer be on God but on the feelings of the congregants. But the trumpets have a nice effect... if you're Johnny Cash looking for a brass accent to use on Ring of Fire.

And as long as we are on the topic of trumptes, Johnny Cash, and are right around the corner from St. Valentine's Day (yes, he is a real person.) I thought I'd point you in the direction of this episode of This American Life. The shows topic is love. One of the love stories it tells is that of Johnny Cash and June Carter. It will make you laugh so hard you pee your pants if you're a girl. Men, feel free to roll on the floor and cackle uncontrolably.

Props to Erica for pointing out the dance-along Gospel procession.

Busy day

Athanasia had to work in Scotts Valley today. The little boy and I went with her. We photocopied our hands in her office and then used hi-liter pens to color the pictures. After that the little boy and I went to Covered Bridge park in Felton for a long time. While we were there I witness two Mormon missionaries try to make some headway with an evangelical protestant. Wow! He had them so tied up they had no idea what to say. Just a little walk up a dirt road from the park was a boarding stable. We walked by all the stalls and looked at all of the horses. Then we watched some of them being exercized in the big corral. The little boy enjoyed it. Then we went to New Leaf market. It is one of my fave stores. Its like Whole foods but smaller funkier and crunchier. We almost stopped at the Abbot's thrift store, but, you know what? I have enough stuff already. So we didn't do that. Instead we drove up a one lane dead end twisty road up a mountain. Being that we were in a pacific temperate rain forst it was a beautiful drive. Until I had to drive back out and met a mail truck. That took a while. Got stuck in mud, burned some rubber. ground some gears. About three we picked up Athanasia and got some pizza then came home.

I'm staying home with the little boy while my wife goes to Vigil in San Francisco. As soon as he is asleep (in about an hour) I'll start in on the homework.

Oh, Concilliar Press has a new blog.

Something Wonderful

It looks like something wonderful is going to happen in my life. But I can't tell you about it for 4 more weeks. But it looks really good.

Happenings

My building contractors are overwhelmed with work right now. I have work that needs to be done NOW because it is impacting tennants, but can't find a contractor who will come before Tuesday.

Going to a molieban to St. Nicholas tonight. Where? St. Nicholas Church, of course.

Noises

Today I have pool pasterers, brick masons, and gardeners working on the property. Lots and lots of noise. There is one machine that makes a humming noise that seems to fluctuate between an F and a G. The little boy sings alog.

I love Khouria Frederica

I do. I really do. Her book Corner of East and Now was one of my first encounters with Holy Orthodoxy. But I just have one question. Is there anything anywhere in the universe that she does not have a hand in?
Here are a few of the things she does...
A. NPR commentator
B. Khoria at a church back east
C. Pro-life activist
D. Author of several books
E. Reader for the blind
F. Lecturer
G. Grandmother
H. Contributor to Beliefenet.com, Christianity Today, First Things, and Touchstone magazines
I. film review for Our Sunday Visitor
J. Contributor to National Review Online
K. Book reviewer for the Los Angeles Times
and now this...member of the editorial advisory board of CruxMag.

When does she sleep?!?!

Intelligent Design

My buddy, Matt, the Roman Catholic who talked me into Orthodoxy (He says he isn't bummed-out by that. I believe him.) has posted something interesting on Intellegent Design.
My opinion on Intelligent design is this: People prefer the dark, therefore arguing with them about Who designed the universe is pointless. Except, I do know one medical doctor who's conversion began when another scientist pointed out that very few of the axioms of science stand on any evidence, and that Jesus is a better axiom (Jesus not only explains what, but why.) than any scientific axiom.

Encouraging things

I came across a blog by an Iraqi. It looks encouraging.

I read an update on the Archpriest Victor. It looks encouraging.

Getting Ready

I am already starting to get excited about Great Lent. In the past I have failed at keeping the fast. I don't mean the food part, I mean the attentivness, repentence, and the alms-giving parts. I haven't done very good at the food part either, but I do better at that than the more important parts of the fast. Anyway, that isn't what I wanted to write here. What I wanted to write about was a new word I learned while getting ready for Great Lent: xerophagy.

Here is the the dictionary definition:
"Xerophagy\Xe*roph"a*gy\, n. [L. xerophagia, Gr. ?; ? dry + ? to eat.] Among the primitive Christians, the living on a diet of dry food in Lent and on other fasts. "

It seems that during the first three days of Holy Week our one daily meal is to be a xerophagic meal. I knew about the one meal, of course, but I had not heard of xerophagy until today. This is very exciting!!! (More info on Orthodox Fasting can be found here.)

I know it might seem weird, but the weekly fast on Wednesday and Friday is one of the things that pointed me away from Roman Catholocism and toward Holy Orthodoxy. During the couple of years I was reading the Ante-Nicene Fathers and the Early Christian Writings, and comparing my "conservative" Protestant faith with the Roman Catholic faith, I read a little book called the Didache. (It had been mentioned by my then pastor, Brian Morgan in one of the sermons he preached at Peninsula Bible Church. It was the first patristic text I ever read, other than the New Testament. Thanks, Brian.) In the Didache it mentioned that Christians were expected to fast on Wednesdays and Fridays. Protestants don't do that. Neither do Roman Catholics. When I encountered the Orthodox Church and learned about the their Wednesday and Friday fasts, man, I'm telling you, a thrill went through me like you wouldn't believe. Who would have thought that I, the libertine of libertines would fall in love with the Orthodox Church because of its asceticism? Now, if I would just live that asceticism...[sigh]. Oh, well. Practice makes perfect.

In other news, the little boy and I went to the beach today. Specifically, we went to Bonny Doon Beach.

Here is an arial photo of the beach. In this picture you can see the Pacific Coast Highway running left to right, the road that goes inland to the little hamlet of Bonny Doon (Fans of Robert Heinlein might be interested in knowing that this is the town where the famous libertarian Sci-Fi philosopher lived.), and the little river that comes out of the cliff and circles around the beach in a clockwise direction.

In the hot days of summer it kind of turns into a hang out for old naked gay men, but that isn't a problem in the winter. It is the best beach between San Francisco and Santa Cruz. There is, as I said above, a little river that comes out of a tunnel in the cliffs. And wow what cliffs. (Here is a picture taken from the top. The beach is about 70 feet straight down.) The little boy and I had to climb down a 70 foot rock face to get to the beach below. The whole time, my fearless little boy was pulling on my hand and trying to jump (JUMP!!!) to the next lower rock. Ordinarily, I would keep 3 points of contact the whole time, but in one hand I had the little boy, and in the other I had a basket with dry clothes. It was scary! I wasn't entirely sure we were going to make it down the cliff. But we did. And boy did we have fun!

We ran in the waves, walked up the winding course of the river, dug holes in the sand, climbed on the rocks. Along the cliffs at the south end of the beach, where the river joined the sea, there were thousands of mussels - big ones! I thought about harvesting them but I don't know the law about that. So we left them. But the little boy had fun playing with them. We also tried to build a dam in the little river, but the little boy didn't want to do anything that organized. He just enjoyed throwing rocks into the water. At the top of the cliffs, and even growing on the sides there were gorgeous sweet smelling wildflowers. They were white but I don't know what they were called. (FYI: I didn't take any of the pictures in the links. I don't know any of the people who did take them, but they will give you some idea of what it is like at Bonny Doon Beach. Apparantly, a lot of people besides me think this is a very good beach.)

Tomorrow is the 4th anniversary of the day I first became aware of the existence of the woman to whom I am married.

Birthday

Today is my birthday. But since it is a fast day, the party was yesterday. It was much fun. We invited the whole parish and all of my family. Of those, about 30 responded. I was kind of disappointed that so many people didn't contact me to let me know if they were comming or not. Then at the party I discovered that some of the people who had been invited never received their invitations. I think what must have happened is that I used post cards as invitations and those are thrid class mail, as opposed to first class mail. I don't know. But now I feel bad because some people didn't get invitations. I especially feel bad because it was such a fun party and many of my friends didn't know they were invited!!!

There were about 15 people who showed up. We sang songs, we told jokes, we played games. We drank champagne cocktails, many bottles of syrah, and orange and raspberry Italian sodas. Because so many people did not RSVP we had prepared enough food and drink for three times the number of people who actually came. So there were a lot of left overs. I've never had so many bottles San Pellegrino in my house at one time. It's like a sparkling water convention.

People brought me presents. I was kind of surprized by that. I never think of presents when I think of my birthday. So it was really nice. I was given three beautiful books, a bottle of scotch, ginger cookies, a miniature sailboat, Joseph Schmidt truffles, and several bottles of wine.

Oh, there was one especially fun thing. My wife put together a charades game with the names of all of my favorite books and movies. Everyone who guessed corectly won a cigar from my humidor. It was hillarious. Matt left with three. A 14 year old youth left with 5. Neither of them smoke!!! Luckily, the 14 YO has a mother who knows people who smoke cigars, and Matt is going skiing with cigar smokers this weekend. So it all works out. But I must say, watching people acting out the names to my favorite books and movies was hillarious.

I've had a good birthday.

Difficult feelings

When I see pictures like this I want to be there so badly it hurts. Oh to be 17 again.