"All science is either physics or stamp collecting." - Ernest Rutherford

You can tell I have an 8-year old granddaughter because a week later there's still glitter on furniture.

You've probably seen news about today's AZ weather. We had snowflakes falling from the sky here today and they put out a freeze warning for tonight. Just north of here, where the elevation quickly rises as you leave the valley floor, they had measurable snow and Flagstaff got dumped on. I may go out and wrap the pipe that brings water to the house, which here is outside and above ground to make the shut-off easily accessible.

We haven't turned the heat on yet this year. Can we make it through the next 48 hours? My Scottish nature thinks we should. Then again, it's only Pam's side of the electric blanket that works. Nothing cures a cheapskate like a chill.

Can you say, or even stumble close to the first sentence of the Declaration of Independence? Go ahead, do it in your head, and then go read it here.
How'd you do?

TWOT was dropped at our doorstep sometime late yesterday but only discovered when Pam left for work this morning. I'm very glad to have it, but I miss books with fabric covers. You know - the piece of cardboard covered in a very tightly woven fabric. Now hardcover books mostly come with those glossy four-color covers with pictures and graphics.

I'm struggling with my sermon. I know what I want to do, just not the best way to do it. Part of the problem is that the Latin "credo," which literally translates, "I believe," means something closer to "I confess." And the Greek, "I confess" - homologeo - typically makes people think of admitting to wrongdoing. But it's only used with that meaning once in the NT. Everywhere else it has the meaning of "credo."

I heard that Brett Favre's $50,000 fine for "failure to cooperate" with the NFL on its investigation is the equivalent to a fine of $130 for the average American wage earner. Does anybody seriously think Roger Goodell didn't juke this one?

I think I set the DVR to record a rerun of the last episode of The Closer, which airs Saturday morning at 9 a.m. I think. Maybe. Now I just have to find the slot where I put the tape in. Or do I use a disk?

We have a very basic sound system. All the components came in a single box: five speakers, incl. two for "surround sound," a powered woofer (besides Jack) and the amp/receiver. But it's Yamaha so I don't think it's total junk. Turns out it has the latest in connections so we can hook it up to the new TV and get better sound than we do through the TV's two 10w speakers. That connection is something called optical audio. Huh? Isn't that an oxymoron? Anyway, the receiver has an "optical audio in" and the TV has an "optical audio out." So I went to Best Buy to get an optical audio cable. They sell one which is 4' long and costs $24.95. Yikes! So at Steve's suggestion I checked Amazon. Yep...$6.03 with free shipping. I'll wait a few days for it to get here in order to save $19. (See "Scottish," above.) When it comes I'll hold it up to the light to find out what you can see through an optical audio cable.