Sunday Night is Pizza Night

Every Sunday night back in college, Matt and I ordered pizza from Slap Shot Pizza, sat on the stinky, orange couch at his house ("The Jesus"), and vegged out to "Suck-you-in-Sunday," or the stream of programming on Fox that would suck us in and keep us from our homework.

After we graduated and were living at our respective parents' houses, we classed it up a bit. We'd hit the Papa Murphy's in Shakopee (okay, so we didn't class it up too much), sit on the floor of his room at his parents' house and enjoy getting sucked in by The Simpons and Family Guy.

After we moved east and left the Papa Murphy's franchise behind, we decided to make our tradition more of a grown-up affair. Yes, we still allow ourselves to be sucked in to Fox's lowest-common-denominator Sunday-night programming (60 Minutes? What?), but now we make our pizzas from scratch.

During a recent lull in Matt's beer-brewing routine, he realized that baking bread was much like brewing beer. "It's just another form of fermenting yeast," he said. Before I knew it, he was baking white bread, wheat bread, cinnamon bread, you name it. He was also making his own pizza dough.


I'm so grateful that Matt and I have held on to a few of our favorite college traditions, and I love that silly things like eating pizza and watching cartoons are still the moments that we look forward to. I'm ecstatic, however, that we've traded Slap Shot pepperoni for homemade, hand-tossed crusts with caramelized onions and goat cheese.

First Facebook, then public signage

In a surprising leap forward in the battle against nonstandard English usage, Facebook will soon do away with the unsightly "their" when a "his" or "her" should be used. No longer will Sarah update "their" profile picture. Gone are the days of Mike commenting on "their" own photo.

It's a small victory, but I'll take it.

This one is for all you "cat people"

Our therapy dog at work, "Newey," is being considered for an American Kennel Club "Canine Excellence" award for his work with our retired sisters. Below is the application we've submitted for consideration. It's a great summary of what Newey's ministry has meant to the sisters here.

“Visit, Newey. Visit.”

S. Bernadette Walsh, SSND stands in the room of an elderly sister at Maria Health Care Center at Villa Assumpta in Baltimore, Md., a retirement facility for elderly School Sisters of Notre Dame. At her right is Newark, a three-year-old yellow lab/golden retriever mix trained by Canine Companions for Independence (CCI) as a licensed therapy dog.

Newark, or “Newey,” gently “visits” the elderly sister by placing his head on the edge of her bed. Then, he waits. Newey is tremendously empathetic, and he senses when the sister is ready for more attention. After a moment, he pulls himself up beside her and the nun’s face lights up. She becomes alert, reaches to pet Newey and talks soothingly to him while stroking his soft ears. The sister has dementia and communicates with no one—but she talks to Newey. “Oh, Newey,” she says. “I see God in your eyes.”

Every day, Newey makes these types of connections at Maria Health Care Center as he ministers to the retired nuns who live there. As he strolls the halls with S. Bernadette, sisters and staff stop what they’re doing to acknowledge Newey. Infirm sisters stretch from their wheelchairs to grasp at his ever-wagging tail. Sisters in walkers make a concerted physical effort to bend down and wrap their arms around Newey. Through all the attention, Newey patiently allows as much love as the sisters need to give. S. Bernadette painstakingly moves from one sister to the next, each one waving good-bye as Newey continues on his rounds.

While therapy dogs have been a presence in nursing homes for many years, Newey’s presence at Maria Health Care Center is a very distinct presence. Sisters in years past led a cloistered lifestyle. The notion of a dog in their midst—therapy or otherwise—was strictly forbidden. But in recent years, more attention has been paid to the care and well-being of the sisters, regardless of the rules and regulations of a bygone era. Still, S. Bernadette is the first nun to whom CCI has given a therapy dog.

Newey’s presence among the sisters has made him an adopted member of their congregation. He attends prayers, ministers to families at sisters’ funerals, and accompanies sisters on hospital visits and to chemotherapy treatments. Even those who were not initially enthusiastic about accepting a dog into their midst can’t imagine life without Newey. As one sister wrote to him last Valentine’s Day: “I appreciate your visits, smiles and friendship. You will always have a place in my heart.”

Newey has become an integral part of S. Bernadette’s life and ministry to her fellow sisters as well. When asked to describe what Newey means to her and to her fellow sisters, S. Bernadette immediately quoted from memory the words of the foundress of the School Sisters of Notre Dame, Blessed Theresa of Jesus Gerhardinger: “Love gives everything gladly, everything again and again, daily."

My "to duel" list

I love a well-written news story with historical illusions. Add a grammatical reference to said story, and I'm hooked. There was a brilliant article in the Washington Post this morning that did just that.

Although, the point of the article wasn't actually the comma (though any self-respecting English major would effectively argue it was the crux of the argument). The article painted an image of a modern society in which arguments are settled with dueling pistols as opposed to dueling words, calling in to question the heretofore accepted "pen is mightier than the sword" argument and not-so-subtlety commenting on yesterday's Supreme Court decision.

Consequently, the article made me question what other modern battles could be more effectively waged with violence than words. Instead of months of rhetoric leading to a general election on November 4th, perhaps Obama and McCain could arm wrestle for the presidency. Instead of arguing with my husband about whose turn it is to empty the dishwasher or take care of that clogged drain, maybe we should dust off our dueling swords. And instead of debating the second amendment, perhaps Justices Scalia and Breyer should have performed the ultimate cliché by standing back to back, marching twenty paces and turning to fire. Why not? As the author says: "Gauntlet, consider yourself thrown."

Welcome!

My husband says that he told me long ago to start compiling my musings on a blog. While I don't recall this, I'll give him credit--partially because he probably deserves it and partially because he flat-out asked for it. If nothing else, he is my life's muse, which should count for something.