Napa Valley

  • "Wherever the Catholic sun doth shine, There's always laughter and good red wine. At least I've always found it so. Benedicamus Domino!" -Hilaire Belloc

Favorite Saints

  • Ven. Pierre Toussaint
  • St. Gianna Molla
  • St. Ignatius of Loyola
  • St. Elizabeth of Hungary
  • Bl. Miguel Pro
  • Bl. Charles of Austria
  • St. Cecilia (my Confirmation saint)
  • Bl. Junipero Serra

I Miss Rome!!!

Our Lady of Perpetual Help

  • Our parish is Our Lady of Perpetual Help, and is the place where we were married. A fitting patron for marriage? We think so! Our Lady of Perpetual Help, pray for us!

MWF looking for a new political party...

  • "To expect that all the world should, and must, adopt the pecular political institutions of the United States- which often do not work very well even at home- is to indulge in the most unrealistic of visions; yet just that seems to be the hope and expectation of many Neoconservatives... Such foreign policies are such stuff as dreams are made on; yet they lead to the heaps of corpses of men who died in vain." --Russell Kirk, "A Prudent Foreign Policy"

Prayer For Our Troops

  • Lord, hold our troops in Your loving hands. Protect them as they protect us. Bless them and their families For the selfless acts they perform For us in our time of need. And give us peace. I ask this in the name of Jesus, Our Lord and Savior, Amen. (From the Archdiocese for the Military Services)

Keeping It In The Family

I Love Ralph Vaughan Williams!

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April 22, 2008

Sometimes your credit card DOES reward you...

So Mr. P and I have been using a certain credit card a LOT (for my co-pays, for utilities, etc.). We've been doing so in the hopes of jacking up the rewards points, knowing that Little P's imminent arrival would require provisioning. I have to also add that we do pay the card off every month, otherwise it really wouldn't be worth using the card at all....

Well we just went online and found out that this card was having a "points sale." The long and short of it is that we just bought our baby's Graco stroller and infant carseat for:

.50 .

yes, 50 cents. So sometimes enrolling in those rewards programs is helpful.

I'll let you know if the set gets here from Amazon (the vendor) in one piece!

April 12, 2008

Where's the Wine?

Every now and then I see that people have found my site by searching for wine. They must be thinking, "What about this site has much to do with wine? I'm thirsty, away with ye." And the truth is that I haven't had much wine lately. Ok, a few sips, since I've found out I was pregnant. But believe me, I miss it, especially during a nice meal. It's interesting that I don't miss white wines, which I usually like quite a lot (Chardonnay and Viognier being favorites), but I CRAVE red wines. Big ones: I miss Zinfandel, and Petite Syrah, and Syrah, and Cabernet. I had a bit of Bighorn Cellars 2001 Cabernet with lamb at Easter, and I was in heaven.

Even if I could enjoy wine all the time, there's a few other impediments to "keeping up" on the wine world that I've encountered.  I no longer work part-time at a winery- my back hurt so much from all of the standing that my concept of cheery customer service oxidized into vinegar faster than a jug of Franzia. I couldn't do lifting of cases anymore, nor quality check the wine (yes, you have to do that when you work in a winery). Pregnancy is a bit incompatible with that particular job, and I had recently found a teaching position closer to home anyway.  The second impediment is the fact that, when Mr. P and I go wine tasting now, he tastes the wine, I sniff a lot of it, and then I wander around looking at the retail stuff while he continues to taste. I get a kick out of the fact that I've become the spacy wandering wifey type, because those were the customers that always perplexed my at my own former winery job ("Are you going to taste, or aren't ya??").

So I don't know what newest of the new releases are out, though I did get a good start on tasting the 2005 vintages for Napa Valley reds before I got pregnant. And I loved them! I don't think you can go wrong with that year. Every red I've had (and they are still young), has been great. I am looking forward to partaking again of the '05's when they're a bit older, and doing more than sniffing them.

So if you've come looking for wine news, or tips, or wine writing that positively ferments with super-charged yeast- well, there's that "back" arrow button on your browser. Godspeed, and cheers!  For the rest of us- I suppose there is more to life than good wine.... right?

February 08, 2008

Beads- and I don't mean the Mardi Gras kind

If you've been to the Yahoo homepage sometime this afternoon, you might have noticed a video link "Birth Control without Pills or Condoms." I clicked on the link, thus being distracted from the work I was supposed to be doing, and watched most of the clip. A lady from Georgetown was being interviewed by a gentleman- who I later found out was also a doctor- and she explained that the university has developed a set of color-coded beads, "cycle beads," which helped women to determine when they were fertile and when they weren't. The interviewer is kind of dorky, and can barely disguise his skepticism for the method, at one point saying, "Isn't this just the rhythm method? Because they taught us about that in medical school...." At another point, he objects again, saying that the cycle beads "give too much power to women." I suppose he means that women could trick men with the beads? Wouldn't that be an easier thing to do with pills- i.e. she could secretly just stop taking them?

What interested me is that the Georgetown doctor never mentioned that this system could be used for religious reasons, but just as "birth control." When I went to the homepage of the program, http://www.cyclebeads.com/ , they do refer to the system as "Natural Family Planning." It seems like basic NFP, but with a visual aid to help the couple see where the woman is in her cycle. Unlike NFP, though, if a woman's cycle is less than 26 days or more than 32 days, then she really can't use the beads. It would be interesting to see if this were ever integrated into other systems of NFP.

Anyway, the video was an interesting watch because 1) the young male doctor is completely skeptical, and seems to have something against a woman knowing where in her cycle she is and 2) religious and moral reasons are never discussed. It's just "how effective is this, really?"

The fact that information about it even made it to Yahoo and ABC is pretty amazing. Maybe it will at least lead some people away from traditional birth control, and all of its dangers and moral problems.  As for the birth control mentality, well, I don't think beads can help that.

January 28, 2008

Where Have I Been?

Gardone_steps

Steps in Gardone Sopra, Italy

I can't believe it's been this long since I've posted here! It's not that I've been lounging about, eating Pringles and painting my toenails. I've actually been working on a transition: in short, I've stopped working at my winery, and will be teaching again this fall. That is, unless I get into graduate school, which will add an interesting twist to the whole situation...

So it would seem that the old adage "When it rains, it pours," once just a marketing ploy, is true. Even just a year ago I didn't know where I was going or what I was doing; now, the possibilities have multiplied. I still am interested in wine, and still love my little old family winery former employer, but I could not turn down the chance to work in Classics again.

And you know what would be really nice? Travel... travel anywhere, I don't know, even a day in San Francisco would be great (I missed the March For Life, because it was my last day of winery work).  The Mr.  and Mrs. Ps have just been too busy to go anywhere. I remember in 2003, right after we were married, we blew the budget and spent 6 weeks traveling to all sorts of places for our honeymoon. It was wonderful! It verified for me that I had found a good match, for we traveled in the same way: open to anything as far as plans and food and culture, on the go, yet still flexible enough when plans had to change.  We still did have opportunities, in that time, to see the gnarly sides of each other- I won't easily forget Mr. P, leaning between two luxury cars by the side of the road in Portofino, sick as he could be after having eaten tainted seafood salad. Portofino- the blue sea, the beautiful people, the wretched seafood salad. And when I was struck down with The Worst UTI In History later in our travels, he was right there in the taxi with me on the way to the Italian emergency room.

One of our stops on out "Honeymoon for Nerds" was the Roman Forum Summer Symposium in Gardone. Lake Garda itself is a wonderful place- one of Italy's glacier lakes, with rivieras for strolling and a location that is near pretty towns like Bergamo.  We met Catholics from all over the world, and enjoyed lectures on numerous aspects of Church History. I would highly recommend the Symposium to any interested parties- not just for the outstanding academic content, but the enjoyment of true Catholic fellowship over bottles of wine and cones of gelato.

Here are the dates and Topics, as well as attending faculty, for the Symposium this year:

These Ruins are Inhabited: Catholic Emergence From the Rubble of Two “Iron Ages” (The Tenth and Twentieth Centuries) The great Catholic civilization of the High Middle Ages arose from initiatives d eveloped in the Tenth Century. This was popularly known as an “Age of Iron” and filled with tales of ecclesiastical collapse and social confusion. Can a new Catholic civilization arise om the ideological and social rubble left by the Twentieth Century’s Iron Age? What signs of hope and warning bells must we Twenty-First Century Catholics heed in attempting to “restore all things in Christ”? What does the example of the Tenth Century teach us in our efforts to rebuild Christendom? These are the questions to be addressed by our expanded, European-American faculty in the 2008 Summer Symposium, in a program dedicated to Pope Benedict XVI and offered in gratitude for his motu proprio, Summorum Pontificum. Why not join us for ten days of learning and taking counsel together with a “traditionalist parliament”, while living and praying in a microcosm of a Christian polis.

The Roman Forum 2008 Symposium


2008 Summer Symposium, Gardone Riviera, Italy
June 26th-July 7th (11 nights)

Faculty, Clergy, and Musicians

 

Dr. Miguel Ayuso-Torres  (Professor of Constitutional Law, Madrid)

Rev. Dr. Ignacio Barreiro-Carámbula (Human Life International)

Donald Cherry (Music Program)

Rev. Bernard Danber, OSA (Lecturer for Eastern Church Art)

Christopher A. Ferrara, Esq. (President, American Catholic Lawyers Assoc.)

David Hughes (Music Program)

Michael J. Matt (Editor, The Remnant)

Rev. Dr. Richard Munkelt (Philosphy, Fairfield University)

Taivo Niitvägi (TriaLogos Foundation, Estonia)

Dr. John C. Rao (Director, Roman Forum; History, St. John’s University)

Rev. Richard Trezza, OFM (Lecturer for Gregorian Chant)

Varro Vooglaid (TriaLogos Foundation, Estonia)

Plus, the Ensemble LinnaMuusikud (Tallinn, Estonia) and many other speakers from Europe, the United States and Canada to be announced.  Contact the Director for further information.

For more information, please go to the Forum website: http://www.romanforum.org/symposia_2008.htm

There are mini-"field trips" during the 11-day Symposium, and Mass is offered daily (I know Msgr. Barreiro, and Frs. Trezza and Munkelt, and they are all very solid and wonderful priests). If you are blessed enough to be able to travel this summer- then do consider the Symposium!

Gardone_aerial

  Aerial view of Lake Garda

December 19, 2007

Advent In Progress...

Good grief, it's been a long time since I've posted. I can chalk my absence up to 1) finishing grad school applications and 2) wanting to write a real, proper, meaty post, then becoming lazy and deciding to watch Project Runway instead. And then there's those Christmas cards to write...

But anyway, here I am, I made it. And wouldn't you know, after quite a few months, job-wise and life-wise, of "Where's my life going, God?" and "You want me to do this?", things are starting to make sense (that is, they always made sense, I just didn't see it). I've often "stumbled" upon gainful employment. I've sent out resume after resume before, often to find a job in an unexpected place and through some random daisy chain of connections. And now it's happened again- and I think, by now, I can recognize Providence when I see it!

Yet another bit of good news is that, after a period of time long enough to make a writer paranoid, I am getting another article published. I'll post the link here, if I can, when it is ready. It's a light and happy little piece that I wrote about wine and poetry. I always knew it was a keeper, even when other articles weren't, so I plugged it and edited it and sent it out over and over.

The thing that I just realized about that wine article is that it would not have been possible without the troubles and wanderings that happened just before and during it. In one week last year I miscarried multiples, and my father-in-law passed away; we went from excitement, thinking that we'd be having twins or more, to nothing. It was that kind of time when you are constantly expecting more bad stuff to happen, just because so much has happened already.  I had a hard few months after September, and gradually, as if I were groping around in the dark, found myself returning to writing. And writing that little wine and poetry article-- finding something really pretty and pleasant to write about-- helped me through the winter. I keenly felt the necessity of light-hearted times, of friendship and joy, and I found and put those elements in that article. To think that, if everything had been roses and sunshine, the wine article might never have come to be! I might never have felt the need to put to paper what made my heart sing.

And then, with that perspective, my winery job, which seemed like such a digression from Classics, Classics, Classics, 24-7, really has a more dignified place in my life. Here I thought I would just work in a tasting room, give it a try, what the heck; and now, I find that I really do enjoy wine- talking about it, writing about it, tasting it, of course. And I've found a way to marry wine and Classics together, with my writing.

The bottom line is this: don't complain about where God is taking you. The ride will be part of the reward. And the blithe times will be all the more precious, because you've been without them. I think that is why Mary knew, ahead of time, to store up all of the beautiful events of her life with Jesus in her heart.

November 09, 2007

Boy Is This Familiar....

And in our case, here is the culprit:

Dariussleepy1

"Who, me? I'm just a sleeeeepy kitty.  Notice how cute my paws are. Aren't they cute? See, could I ever do anything evil? Nooo, of course not."

October 17, 2007

I've gone and done it

For reasons known to Mr. P and my sister (who is the perpetual maker of mischief, and instigator of this particular plot), and only still partially known to myself, I've signed up to take the GRE. Again. The last time I took the test was five years ago, and so my scores are too old for the graduate school that I'm considering applying to.

Yes, I am taking that God-forsaken computer test, and yes, I am thinking of more school. I already have my MA in Latin and Greek, but there is this tug on my heart... I've given it a few years away from school, and it hasn't gone away. The thing is, I've figured out that I love academia. The lectures. Books. Boundless opportunities for mental growth. Three months off in the summer. The orderly progress through coursework, exams, and papers. I also love enforced learning. "Enforced" in that someone else is saying, "Ok, Mrs.P, this is what you need to do this quarter/semester, and if you don't do it, then you could lose your funding." Since I can be more slothful than a sloth on National Sloth Appreciation Day, it's good to have some pressure. I don't do "independent study' well- when I took independent study Latin III in high school, I spent much of my time reading Reader's Digest and pursuing the common sport of all teenagers, sleeping on my books. 

So I'm ready to cast off into the deep again, and am applying to a Bay Area graduate school for Fall of 2008. Hence the GRE- argh, I hate it.  I hated it when I took it five years ago, though I didn't perform that badly. I mainly hate the math portion- why in the world do I need to re-memorize the formula for the volume of a sphere in order to get my Ph.D. in Latin?? 

And how in the heck does the company who puts out the GRE obtain non-profit status, and charge $140 for a 4-hour test? I don't get it all, but the time I'm spending growing bilious about an exam should be better applied to studying for the d---- thing.

The good news is that I've made this decision so quickly, and the exam is coming up so soon, that I have little time to get worked up about it and really become nervous. Also, I just don't feel very nervous- I've really decided to entrust the whole test-taking and application process to God. Having reflected on the many times that He has opened doors for me in the past (meeting Mr. P, getting into every school that I have gotten into), and seeing some of my own machinations not succeed so far this year, I will remain hopeful and ready to embrace His will. Easy, right?

St. Thomas Aquinas, pray for current and once-and-future students!

October 10, 2007

Darius the Fluffyshanks

... Lord of the Lumpy Blanket, Master of Great Tufty Toes

Wishes you

A Happy Feast of St. Francis of Assisi!

Darius4

Darius5 

That is all. 

September 11, 2007

Nothing Says "High Maintenance"...

... like a T-shirt that says just that- in Latin!

High20maintenance20detail20page20pi

And I guess that, if you're wearing a T-shirt that says this in Latin, then you are high-maintenance- at least to a majority of Americans. But for a Catholic girl... well, solitum est.

August 30, 2007

This great bit from the Onion

...via a friend. Check it out!

Woman Overjoyed By Giant Uterine Parasite

The Onion

Woman Overjoyed By Giant Uterine Parasite

NEW BRIGHTON, MN— "I'm so happy!" Crowley said of the golf ball–sized, nutrient-sapping organism that will eventually require hospitalization in order to be removed.