News

We braved the mall today. The first time we’ve been near it since the holidays got close. But, it wasn’t busy. It was easy to find a parking spot. Bad for the mall; good for our trip. We are on our third day of holiday socializing. Jonathon’s guy friends came over last night and we all went out to a nice restaurant. Trinity started to fade and found out she’s still not overly fond of French food. Came home, tucked the kiddo in, and then we all sat up and talked, except for the kiddo. Jon is the first of his friends to be married, so the talk ran high to what it’s run to for years; games, video games, books, headlines, science (usually physics or math. Jamey has a degree in physics.),and politics.
I begged off before the talk was finished, so they could do more guy bonding.
What was the world doing? Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in Pakistan, setting off riots, and more deaths. Bear in mind that Pakistan has nuclear capabilities, for real. Not just some unconfirmed intelligence report.
Today, we, along with Uncle Richard, are finally seeing the new NATIONAL TREASURE. We’ll let you know what we think of it. I know the first movie was bad science, and bad history, but it was so much fun. It was also a movie that we could watch as a family and all enjoy. That is rare enough to make up for Hollywood improbabilities. Besides, our enjoying the movie, even with it’s iffy history was the beginning of Trinity wanting to visit Philadelphia. So, fake history led us to travel and learn a lot more about real history. The King Tut exhibit simply capped the choice of vacations this summer.
What was happening in the world? A tiger escaped from the San Fransisco Zoo’s tiger enclosure. It killed a seventeen-year-old boy, and injured two more men. Police shot it to death using hand-guns at last report. They’re still debating on how the tiger escaped.
After the movie we’ll be visiting with more friends. Meeting them at a restaurant we’ve gone to since both our girls were babies.
In the world: In Carnation, Washington a disgruntled daughter and her fiance killed her entire family. They killed her parents while they were finishing up the wrapping of presents, then they cleaned up the blood and hid the bodies, and waited. They waited for her sister, her husband, and their two children. Then they killed them all. A dispute over money is what is sited, but that doesn’t really explain it. We’ll be trying to explain this Christmas nightmare for years to come, but in the end the terrible truth is there is no explanation. Nothing rational, nothing that makes sense.
Tomorrow will be the last of the family holiday visits. We’ll be seeing Jon’s aunts and uncle, and sampling more of Art’s delicious food. They’ve said we can bring the dogs with us, all three of them. Brave relatives.
Our men and women in uniform are still in Iraq, Afghanistan, the demilitarized zone in Korea, and hundreds of other places around the world tonight.
Monday is New Year’s Eve, and Trinity and her best friend are having a party at Grandma’s. Jon and I are on our own for New Year’s which almost never happens. Whatever shall we do with a free evening? Hmm, let me think.
I’ve put off writing a blog for two days, because I couldn’t decide what to write about. Did I pay attention to the headlines, or did I talk about my everyday life? I finally compromised, because what I find difficult some days is that while our lives are going along so normally, pleasantly, there are other lives around the world that are not going so well. The juxtaposition of it, seems important, somehow. That we remember while we have our holiday, those that will have holiday, or not the holiday they wished for.
I was sick for two days with a winter virus, but I didn’t write about it, because people were dieing, and it seemed, less important. I didn’t write about the writing, because it seemed less real than the headlines.
Hopefully, tomorrow, I’ll get up and the headlines will be a little less real. I pray for good news tomorrow, not just for me and mine, but for everyone.