Happy Solstice Everyone!

Today Sara, Ryan, Jessie, Amber and myself trekked through the snow down to New London to go to the Solstice Celebration.. It was a very nice service, they did a bunch of songs and in between they used quotes from Greek Myth and Black Elk Speaks which is an interview/story they did in 1932 with a Sioux medicine man. Here is one quote that I really liked..

"You have noticed that everything an Indian does in in a circle, and that is because the Power of the World always works in circles, and everything tries to be round. In the old days when we were a strong and happy people, all our power came to us from the sacred hoop of the nation, and so long as the hoop was unbroken, the people flourished. The flowering tree was the living center of the hoop, and the circle of the four quarters nourished it. The east gave peace and light, the south gave warmth, the west gave rain, and the north with its cold and mighty wind gave strength and endurance. This knowledge came to us from the outer world with our religion. Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle. The sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours. The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle. The moon does the same, and both are round. Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where the were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves. Our teepees were round like the nests of birds, and these were always set in a circle, the nation's hoop, a nest of many nests, where the Great Spirit meant for us to hatch our children."
Black Elk Speaks, John G. Neihardt

What ever happened with yesterday's solstice bonfire? We didn't make it, by the time we got going we realized that we were never going to make it with the roads the way they were. So.. Instead we went to the Courthouse for dinner and to Target for some shopping.

Speaking of shopping.. Tonight afterwards we went to the Crystal Mall and wandered around/went shopping.. It was fun, I got to go to Sat Mat and look around, it was not as busy as I would have liked it to be.

How many people can you stuff in a Outback Sport? Well, how about me driving, Amber in the front, Rene in a car seat taking up 1/3 of the back seat with Ryan, Jessie and Sara taking up the rest?

This tendon thing really sucks.. Last night as I was leaving Ryan and Sara's house I stepped on a hard lump of ice/snow and hurt myself bad, I ended up having Jessie drive home and I had to crutch into the house. Today I was really really careful to not step on any un-even snow/ice patches. I did really good till I got home and after taking my shoes off Nest tripped me and I went down hard... Now for the second straight night I'm laying on the couch in lots of pain and nothing but Advil to try and make it better... Fuck... Day by day right?

So.. Onto food matters... If you remember I mentioned that I loved the way I felt in Japan and Singapore and it has everything to do with the food I was eating or rather the food I was not eating. So, I figure there are two things that you don't really eat in Japanese and Singapore cuisine and that's wheat and milk. So, since Lynz and Sara can't it wheat I figure that's the easier thing to test.. I did not cut it out completely but I did cut back on it massively and it helped but didn't make it go away. So, now I'm going to put wheat back in and remove milk and see if it gets better or worse. If it gets worse than I will really cut wheat out completely, if it gets better then I will continue to cut milk. I figure through enough experimentation I should be able to figure it out.

Well, that's it for me for now.. Jessie is done with taking the trash out and we are going to do the tree now...

---Diversion of the Day
http://www.redmeat.com/redmeat/2008-12-16/index.html

---Thought of the Day
We are most certainly going to have a white Christmas this year.. It's been snowing here now since Friday at 2pm without stopping... Actually it stopped today from about 6pm to 11pm but it's snowing again now.. Hopefully the sun will make a hasty return and we can have an early spring...

Snow.. I hates it!

First off let me just say in case you don't already know.. I hate snow.. Sure, it looks pretty when it's coming down and it looks pretty to see a great big landscape of pure virgin snow but then I remember I have to go out in it... If it was not bad enough normally because of ass-hats who can't drive and oh by the way, it's fucking cold... Did you know that it can't be warm and snow, hence snow is shitty.. Right, so... Now let's ramp up the "suck" level of this particular snow shall we, I have a very stiff wobbly ankle which is going to make walking in this crap even more of a pain in the ass.. By the way, did I mention how everything closes when it snows? It can rain like a mother fucker and shit don't close, you get some snow and everyone goes into a panic like the world is going to end... Seriously? Is this your first year in New England? No, you were born here, then buck up buddy it's just some fucking snow..

Oh, and just because you own a 4-wheel or all-wheel drive car does not automatically make you invincible, you still to know how to actually drive. I see that problem more in the 4-wheel drive SUV jackasses than the all-wheel drive Subaru/Audi people. I love the attitude of I'm high off the ground and have 4-wheel drive so I must be safe right? NAAHH!! You're safe when you learn how to drive...

Can it be spring now??

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Tomorrow is the Winter Solstice, we are planning on going to the CT Audubon Solstice celebration tonight and a celebration at the Unitarian Universalists in New London tomorrow.

Today we have (starting at 7:30pm):
"Bring back the sun with festivities, folklore, and songs surrounding the shortest day of the year. Feasting, bonfire, and ceremonies representing cultures around the world." in Glastonbury CT which is just south of Hartford right off Rte 91 and Rte 2.

Tomorrow we have (starting at 4:00pm):
"We will once again celebrate the turning of the season and the coming of the longest night of the year. We’ll look to the light together as the choir and congregation journey into the dark of Winter, where seeds grow, babies wait, quiet dwells, people rest and anticipate. Then, finding the hope of light, we emerge in nature's cycle with spirits reborn and transformed. Our Winter Solstice is an affirmation of ancient wisdom, through music and storytelling that draws from an eclectic array of Greek mythology, Pagan chants, universal drumming, Native American texts and Western polyphonic singing." in New London CT which is right off 395/95 in Southern CT.

We are also planning on hanging with Sara and Ryan today during the day to do some last minute x-mas shopping.. btw - don't forget to put the "x" back in x-mas. I am so sick and tired of those "Put the Christ back in Christmas" things, read history you ass-hats he never belonged there to begin with... If anything we should just admit that Christmas is a secular holiday based on some fat ass (granted a cool fat ass) who breaks into our houses and leaves us gifts. Maybe they should rename is "Santamass" or "Clausmass"... Blah, or we could just all go back to celebrating the Solstice for the ubber party that it was meant to be (celebrations used to start on the 20th and end sometime on the 24th and 25th). In today's modern age of technology and needing to work imagine how cool it would be if we could all take off a week for Solstice?

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Yesterday I walked around town a bit, I went to VSC and borrowed a whole bunch of Dream Theater CDs from Dave and then went to Wonderland Books to try and find a Harry Potter CD Wallet with no luck. After that I went to Radio Shack and Savage Systems trying to find a SATA to USB cable which they make now but neither place had one. Funny side note, I found out it existed by finding one on Radio Shack's website but they don't carry it in the store. I ordered one and should have it soon.

Jessie came home early and took a long nap, it's such a hard life staying up to all hours with all her boys... :P

Speaking of her boys... Kevin came over last night and we watched Robin Williams Live on Broadway and Batman Begins before screwing around on the internet/youtube for far too long.

The Robin Williams show was from 2002 and had some really good bits in it. I think my favorite was his bit on cats being like drag queens and marking their territory... You should check it out if you have not seen it.

Batman Begins is the fist Christopher Nolan Batman movie. After seeing Dark Knight I was not disappointed with Batman Begins. I really love the way Christopher Nolan brings the Batman series to the screen. I may need to revisit Michael Keaton and Val Kilmer to be sure of this statement, but... I really think Christian Bale is the best Batman I've ever seen. Keaton was a great Batman but a crappy up-tight Bruce Wayne. Kilmer was a perfect Bruce Wayne, but failed a bit as Batman when compared to Keaton. Bale's addition of the gruff voice as Batman put him on par with Keaton and his goofy antics as Bruce Wayne made him on par with Kilmer. He is the perfect combination of those two actors in his portrayal of Batman/Bruce Wayne. Not to mention the camera work was amazing, right up there with something I would expect from Sam Raimi.

Give us a 3rd Batman Mr Nolan... Oh, wait you are... Nice... Eddie Murphy to play the Riddler in the new Batman movie due out in 2010.

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Oh, speaking of yesterday.. Me and Jessie had this great beer called Weyerbacher Heresy which has a A- rating on beeradvocate. Speaking of beeradvocate, they won't let you rate a beer unless you write 250 characters or more per review. I would really like it if I could just rate it without writing a review.

---Diversion of the Day