The woman spent time in the federal slammer for insider trading, for crying out loud.  Yet there were contestants hopping up and down and giggling in a state of near-hysteria, so excited they were by being in The Presence. 

It's not that I'm against giving those who've paid their debt to society a second chance...I most assuredly am....but it bothers me a bit when being convicted of and serving time for a felony doesn't seem to have made a significant difference in a person's life at all.  Stewart still has a show, magazines, merchandise carried who-knows-where-all, books, etc....just as if she'd never been inside a prison for any reason than donating cookies.

Maybe I'm just being a witch, but it bugged me more than a little.

This is my fourth time, I believe it is, to act in such a capacity.  One thing I've come to realize is there isn't actually a whole lot for a wedding volunteer to do, assuming all goes well.  Meandering around outside the sanctuary while the wedding is going on, directing the occasional late-comer and standing guard over the gifts that have been brought, is a large part of my duties.  A couple of times I've helped with receptions, including a catered, sit-down lunch, which was very nice.  The wedding was held in the large (new) sanctuary, then the guests trooped down the long hall (through the children's area) to the older, "small" sanctuary, which is now sort of an all-purpose room.  It's an excellent venue for a wedding, and as the pews were removed in favor of individual chairs, it can be arranged however is needed (last Wednesday I attended the first Women's Ministry Summer Salad Luncheon in it). 

If I continue to do this, I'm going to have to buy myself an appropriate outfit with pockets and a small digital camera, as I keep missing fabulous photo ops, which is simply killing me.  At the wedding yesterday there'd been a round table set up in what is called the Great Room (really just the large area outside the new sanctuary), and on it was a lovely floral arrangement and an assortment of photos.  Not the ordinary bride-and-groom-over-the-years photos, but past wedding portraits from relatives on both sides.  It was fascinating! 

After the groomsmen had finished with having their pre-ceremony photos taken, they passed the table on their way back to the upstairs room which had been set aside for their use, and seeing the photographs they spontaneously gathered around it, oohing and ahhing, pointing out one picture or another to each other.  I know it doesn't sound like much, but it was quite moving, and I tried to surreptitiously catch the attention of the videographer, who had his back to me and was filming a static something, and one of the official photographers, who also had his back to me and was taking pictures of the guest book (why he'd want photos of an empty guest book, I can't imagine).  No luck.  The vignette lasted just a minute, if that, and then the young men dispersed, and the moment was gone.

And I was the only one to see it. 

As the bride and her father were waiting to be signaled it was Time, and after the photographer had taken her posed photos of them both, I saw him  - he was facing me, while she was mostly turned away from me  -  take her hands in his and beam fondly at her, and murmur something to her, and her squeeze his hands.  Then they let go of each other as the signal was given, he gave her a thumbs up, and she returned it, in what was clearly a traditional rite of theirs. 

Again, I was the only one to see them, and oh, how I wished I'd had my camera so I could have snapped them making the thumbs-up sign at each other, and when he was holding her hands in his for the last time before walking her down the aisle!  Had that been Don and one of our girls I'd have cherished seeing those photos later on, so what a pleasure it'd be to be able to send them via the wedding director. 

But no camera. 

On another note, the groom had the best idea for his groomsmen's gifts!  He gave them compasses on chains....they looked like pocket watches.  The guys were obviously very pleased with them, so if someone needs such a thing, those would be a good choice.

Lessee here....I've been tagged by Coffeeandmuffin. 

The Rules:
1. Link to the person that tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about you in your blog post.
4. Tag six people in your post.
5. Let each person know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know your entry is up.

Six random things about myself never shared on this blog.

Hmmm....that's going to be a trick, considering the amount of stuff I've yapped about here over the years, but we'll see what I can scare up.

1.  For the first several years of my life our family's annual summer vacation was driving up to Atwood, KS, where Mamie, my great-grandmother, lived.  It's a small town (doubtless even smaller now) in the northwest corner of that state, much given to tornadoes and hail.  Whereas the Fort Worth tornado siren is tested once a month, the Atwood siren was sounded each day (except maybe Sunday?) at 3 p.m.  Made a handy "okay, nap-time's over!" signal.  It's surprising how old I was before it occurred to me that Mamie's house wasn't air-conditioned.  We used to drive Mom batty (there were only the older three at the time, as Elaine didn't make her appearance until after Mamie's death) by agitating before we'd left the city limits for the coloring books and other goodies she'd pack to while away the long hours in the station wagon.  This was before seat belts were even a gleam in some automobile engineer's eye, so they'd put the back seats down to enable us to stretch out.  Those were the days!

2.  Our first computer was an Apple IIc.  I agonized over that purchase decision for months.  Get the pricier Apple IIc or the cheaper Commodore 64?  The IBM PCjr was also available, but I never really considered it, for reasons I've forgotten.  That was one of the best purchase decisions I ever made, from the vantage point of lack of buyer's remorse.  The Apple IIc was one sweet machine.  I recall getting the computer game "Zork", I'm thinking it was, and all of us huddling around the computer, gasping in awe as the lid came off a coffin and three mice (all stuck together, if you see what I mean) ran across the screen.  I even studied computer programming a little, managing to create a graphic of a simple teddy bear that waved.

3.  The first time I ate pizza was at a party at my friend, Yvonne's, house when I was, oh, maybe 11 or so?  Didn't like it.

4.  I never cut class in high school.  My children - particularly those who raised class-cutting to an art form - always found this hard to believe, but it's true.  Never.  Not once.  Didn't even occur to me to do so.  Of course,  I attended Nolan Catholic, which had comparatively small classes, so an unexplained absence was more likely to be noticed, but still, later on I learned other kids I knew occasionally skipped one class or another.  Not me, though.  This is more to be credited to my lack of imagination and adventure than any particular sanctity on my part, however.

5.  I missed both my senior prom and Seniors' Six Flags Night because I was going with a boy who'd graduated a year ahead of me and joined the Air Force.  Always rather regretted not having ever attended a prom, but that's the way it goes.  Don points out he went to two, so between us, it evens out.  Nice try, Mr. Ivy, but it doesn't work like that.

6.  Barring a short stint working as a file clerk in Dad's law firm, my very first employment was as a part-time sales clerk for O'Neill's Card Shop in Forum 303 mall.  It was after Don and I were married, and we only had the one car so one or the other of us had to drop the other off and pick 'em up.  Sometimes the schedule worked out that I got off about 6 p.m., but Don worked late at the drug store, so I'd have to kick around the mall for the evening.  It wasn't a huge hardship, as I'd go to a movie or get a bite to eat and read.

There, m'dear!  Done and done. 

Now I need to tag six others, eh?  Well, let's hear from Justagirl, Lois, Cindy, Eleanor, Lise, and my daughter-in-law, Beth.  ;^)

Is anyone else watching it?

It's a rather unnerving thought that these contestants represent the best of the bunch...the cream of the crop...the pick of the litter...out of thousands of entries.  If these are the best, it gives one pause to reflect on what the rest of those thousands must have been like.  You'd have to pay me a lot of money to sit and watch those entry videos for hour after hour.

BTW, what was up with that Lisa person and her "three C's of cooking!" culinary viewpoint, one of which was "community outreach"?   

Community outreach?  I was glad to see Bobby Flay and everyone else look as totally baffled as was I.  When I think of "community outreach" and "cooking", I think of peanut butter sandwiches being given to the homeless, and Thanksgiving dinners for the poor...the sort of thing where politicians are careful to be seen volunteering.

Apparently Lisa finally accepted that she's surrounded by cretins, so dumbed her POV down to "beautiful basics", which is okay.  That has promise.

Then there's the Indian woman, who thinks very, very highly of herself and doesn't take criticism at all well.

And the nineteen year old boy.  Mind, I'm positively agog with admiration for a teenage boy who can cook at all, never mind well enough to snag a spot on NFNS, but still....nineteen?  That's awfully young.  He puddled up on the first show, for pity's sake.  Come back in a few years when you're all grown up, sweetie. 

It makes one realize how unusual it is for this type of contest to actually find a gem such as Guy Fiori.  

Two episodes in, and so far I've not seen any potential "Guy"s in this group. 

Amy Finley's The Gourmet Next Door, that is?

Apparently it's been canceled already.  No current episodes, and none upcoming.

I know I never watched it. 

In the trailers for the Next Food Network Star show that began on June 1st, there's one of the judges solemnly declaring, "This will change one of your lives.....forever!"

OTOH, maybe not. 

And I can be reasonably fond of preschoolers (depending upon the closeness of my relationship with them, how much sleep I had the night before, and whether or not I have to change an ooky diaper).

And graduations are certainly wonderful occasions.

But putting those three things together is just silly:

For corn's sake, the kid can't even read it! 

I realize that with the preponderance of e-cards these are tough times for the greeting card industry, but this is card-ism run amok.

Yesterday Dmitry and I were at his school, deciding which classes he'll take for summer school.  According to the teacher, he has fifteen credits now, so if he can manage to garner two more this summer, he'll be only one credit away from being a senior. 

Considering the number of credits he earned during the past school year, it's definitely possible that he could complete the required number of credits for graduation by the end of the next school year.

Of course, the wild cards are those tiresome, frustrating TAKS tests.  Unless he can pass those, he still wouldn't be able to graduate.

But one never knows, does one?  It's astonishing to us to think there's even a possibility he could graduate next year, when he's eighteen! 

Even if Dmitry did have a hard time staying awake for the first act, the nuisance.  

I loved it.  The sets were marvelous, the costumes sumptuous and a feast for the eyes, and the music was magnificent!  I was rapt throughout the whole performance.

Carolyn and I have already agreed we need to make plans to attend the FWOpera's production of "Carmen" next spring.  We both love "Carmen."

It was killing me, I was yearning so much to sneak a photo or two or three with my cell phone's camera, but that's not permitted so I didn't.  Pity!

Did get a picture of the hall from our seats, prior to the beginning of the opera:

We had seats in the lower gallery, which worked great, I thought.

Here are the kids, prior to entering the hall:

Anyway, it was just wonderful! 

This afternoon Dmitry and I collected Carolyn and set forth on a - for her, anyway - culinary adventure.

Yes, it was time to introduce Carolyn to the joys of Russian cuisine, as offered by Taste of Europe in Arlington, aka: "the Russia store."

He was dressed appropriately, wasn't he?

Carolyn and I had borscht, followed by pelmeni, while Dmitry had the borscht and what they call "Russian Navy Pasta with Meat."  Basically it's ground beef and macaroni with Russian seasoning, and Dmitry's quite fond of it.  Carolyn appeared to like the food alright, though since it turns out she doesn't much care for sour cream, she didn't get what we'd consider to be the full gustatory effect.  Dmitry and I tend to dump sour cream on all of it.  Shlurp!  

Speaking of borscht and pelmeni and sour cream is to speak of God's good blessings;  speaking of what follows is something else again....I'm not absolutely certain what:

Yes, folks, it's Barbie waffles, with pictures somehow painted on them.  We can but hope the Eggo people are sincere when they promise it to be a "limited edition."

I'm hoping it's a very, very limited edition indeed.