We Have a Pope...Oh Goodie!

So, we have a Pope again. The smoke pouring from the Sistine Chapel was white and a dark horse, a cardinal from Argentina had been chosen. Not only is he a non-European pope, he chose a name that has never been picked before - Francis.

Pope Francis. I wish I felt better about his policies.

Now, I love St Francis of Assisi. What's not to like? The statues and pictures show a humble man in a cassock surrounded by happy birds and baby animals. St Francis was cool with the fur and feather bunch. Hopefully the new Pope, who is no youngling at age 76, can become popular with the human contingent while discussions about the two seagulls perched on the smokestack top have me laughing this morning.

Saint Francis was a friend to the feathered and furred. Now...will Pope
Francis be a friend to the people?

He inherits a church deeply scarred by pedophilia and other abuses, as well as divided by issues like the ordination of women and homosexual marriage. He has a long platform behind him of denial of homosexual marriage rights and I doubt he will change that. So once more, while trying to discuss the issue with my DH (something that I really should know better than to ever talk about with him) we argued. He is dogmatic and firm in his denial of marriage rights for non-heterosexual couples, I am adamant that Gay Rights are Civil Rights and that religious marriage is up to the individual church/denomination but that the legal rights should not be withheld.

So after ranting about how the government is taking away his choices he barricaded himself in the upstairs bedroom watching on-demand stuff for the night while I watched my ghost shows downstairs in the computer room. He's like a stone - firm and hard, but the world is like a river and eventually the water will turn the stone into mud.

Eventually opposition will be worn away, but it's uncomfortable
while the battles are being fought.

Yesterday was my day off and I toured one of the local health clubs - actually very nice but I don't think I can do anything about joining and getting my money's worth until after I have retired, so that's back burner. After groceries and errands I pulled out my pastels and while doing laundry, continued colorizing the inks I had already prepared for CB's Big Bang. I had so much fun! Three more panels have now been colored with one more to go, then a photo montage and finally a pencil/charcoal piece that I will start later this week. Oh...and chapter headings, but I already have an idea for that. It's all coming together and it's so much fun!

LA Fitness is a nationwide company with a large location
very near my home. I'm so tempted...I really miss belonging
to a health club.

Have fun today. Choose something that you love doing and allow yourself at least 30 minutes to do it. We all need something positive in our lives....

Snow, Food and Cardinals

There are absolute benefits living in the snow belt, one of which is that we know how to deal with and drive in snow, and another of which is that we know that snowstorms are temporary and move on. In this case we are sending the massive storm we've had for the past two days east, because we are generous and giving people.

It was a medium weight snow and settled nicely onto the branches and trees.

Actually, I really feel for those of you who will still be getting snow from this system. It was a total PITA storm. Yesterday it took my DH and I combined more than 45 minutes to shovel the 6" of overnight snow from our driveway. It took DH all day to do the rest of the shoveling that he does and get the snow pulled down from three different roofs. He was a hurting boy by the end of the day, but still cooked up some Sloppy Joes for a surprise dinner. So good, and such a sweetie.

I love Sloppy Joes. Not sure what these are? I put a recipe in a click link above.

The Cardinals have started gathering in Vatican City. No...not the birds. They are gathering here in my trees, laughing at us as we shovel the snow. No, I'm talking about the people who will shortly declare Conclave and begin the process of choosing a new Pope. This picture has been floating around and I asked a friend to send it to me so that I could share with all of you.

I hope this comes through large enough for you to read each
candidate's name and national alignment.

In this season of March Madness (which is a term used in the US for the College Basketball Finals - great games!), I thought it was rather hilarious to put the Papal candidates into a bracket breakdown by geographical zone as the picture shows. Go ahead and indulge yourself with speculation...who will win the privilege to wear the white and the crazy hat?

March First - A Watershed Day

A lot of months tiptoe into our lives. We look up at our calendars and realize the sheet facing us is out of date - *yawn*. We shuffle over to the calendar, flip the page to the current month, take a look at the new picture - *yawn*. We hang the calendar back up on the wall, and then ignore it with few exceptions until the next month catches us belatedly changing the page again. But March isn't like that - no...March has teeth.

In like a lion and out like a lamb - but also the
snowiest month in Minnesota.

March begins B2ME - Back to Middle Earth - month. B2ME means some fairly intensive writing for the month, but I'm still working on illustrations and writing, although it will be done, won't be done with the same intensity as previous years. Last year's B2ME was super-intense, resulting in my writing more than sixty stories in the thirty-one days. The year before, the Passport year, resulted in 31 stories written and a fully stamped passport. I didn't participate in 2010, although I read a lot of excellent fic that was posted for the month's prompts and geographical goals. I'm looking forward to participating again, but I'm relieved that this year won't have the over-the-top intensity of last year.

All 31 stamps for my Back to Middle Earth 2011 Passport.
2011 was my first year of participating in this month-long challenge.

I finally had a chance, over the past two days, to catch up on some reading of fanfic - something that I was WAY behind on. Of course I immediately dove into the literary waters of Fiondil because I adore his writing and because I was super behind on his latest story. By the end of yesterday I had brought myself up to date with his current story and finally had the opportunity to read his holiday story. Now to catch up with the second half of Elf Academy II and I'll be back up and running. I really hate falling this far behind, but my own writing has to float to the top of my "to-do" list, then I can concentrate on reading, illustrating, housecleaning and other things that seem to occupy my days. Now if I could just eliminate work from the mix I'd have the time to do more... Dreams...

So pleasant to have my nose in a book again!

We are Popeless, and the Pope didn't even die. The German Shepherd (Pope Benny) has now been whisked away viz helicopter to seclusion. He will not be seen in public again and I'm not having any problem with that. The Cardinals have gathered and a new Pope will be elected, hopefully one with a more progressive viewpoint who can fess up to the problems within the Church and bring it into current times and values - kicking and screaming every step of the way, I'm sure.  In any case, Pope Benny made sure that his name would go down in history as the first Pope to resign in the past 600 years. Talk about job security...

Good-bye to the German Shepherd - Pope Benedict.
Enjoy your retirement.

Happy Friday, enjoy your day. I'll be treating myself and my DH to McDonald's fish sandwiches for dinner tonight (and yes, we love them and it is a treat for us). I hope each of you have an absolutely awesome day and end up your Friday on a high note.

Never Enough Time!

Well, I didn't get enough accomplished on my studio day, but it was wonderful having a day off. I did get Denatured Alcohol for my alcohol lamp on my workbench, oil to help me sharpen my gravers, and some banana plugs for the plug-in end of my rectifier. I painted the other part of my skulls for my electroforming project next week. When I told the hardware store dude that I was electroforming skulls, he thought it was awesome. I must admit - it is a bit beyond the norm :-)

And one thing that lightened my heart is the news that the Pope is installing a large solar system for supplementary energy production at the Vatican. Go Green! Go Pope! (My friend - who actually happens to be Catholic - calls this Pope the "German Shepherd". I love it!)