A Day off.

Well, it after midnight so I guess I should say yesterday was my day off.  I slept through most of it, though.  I have a bad cold that is accompanied by a terrific headache.  I have to be at work at noon.  I hope I am feeling better by then.

I like my job.  It doesn't pay much, at least not now.  I sell cars but there aren't a lot of customers at the moment.  I have been doing okay compared to my peers (I've sold more than any of them this month.) but there seems to be a reluctance by people to spend money.  Perhaps, there is fear of what the future holds for the economy.  I don't know.

The other problem with my job (I don't want this to sound complainy.  I really do enjoy it.) is the hours.  I am at the FIAT studio 50 to 50 hours per week, including Sundays and Saturdays.  And I don't get off work until 9 p.m.  What this means is that I haven't been to church in months.  And I barely spend any time with my children.  I don't know what to do about it.  In the long run, I hope to become a high school teacher so I'll have Sundays and summers off, but right now I just don't see what else I can do.

Boom Shaka-laka

Where does "boom shaka-laka" come from? It pops up in various pop culture moments, such as during basic training graduation in the movie Stripes, and in the Muppet Treasue Island.  But where does it come from?  The earliest occurance of the phrase I have been able to uncover is in this 1971 song by Ike and Tina Turner.

Cocktail of the Week: Dreamy Chocolate Winter

Christmas is over and, here in northern California, we have settled in for the usual long cold wet winter.  It has been raining off and on all day and the mercury currently reads 40 F.  So, it is perfect weather for this cocktail.

Make a mug of hot cocoa according the the instructions on your tin of Ghirardelli Double Chocolate Hot Cocoa.  To that add the following:
1 oz. Kahlua Coffee Liquor (original)
1 oz. Baileys Original Irish Cream Liquor
1/4 oz. Potter's Amaretto (it is made in Fairfield, California by Frank-Lin)
Top with whipped cream.
Serve.

Two Ancient Songs

Greek



Ugaritic

Heaven in Tolkien

This is interesting.  C.S. Lewis (especially The Voyage of the Dawn Treader) layed part of the foundation for my conversion to Holy Orthodoxy.  I never thought of the influence of Tolkien on my thinking and believing.  But now I see it.

Heaven, at least as it was described to me when I was a child, always seemed very boring to me.  But but now I see how Hobbit holes, Tom Bombadil's house, Lothlorien, Rivendell, Beorn's home, and even the Prancing Pony inn in Bree planted seeds in me that grew into longing for more "home".   That home of course is Heaven.