My Vatican Splendor "toothpick holder"

For the past few years my two sisters, my brother and I have spent a day in the fall with my mom to celebrate her birthday. This year we went to the MN History Center to see the Vatican Splendors exhibit. The artwork on display was pretty amazing and we decided that when money is no obstacle its really much easier to build a fine collection of fine art. The intricate detail work on the dishes (I know there are real words for each item-I'm too lazy to look them up) used for communion was impressive. I suppose it would be sacrilegious to consider melting them down to provide proper health care to the retired nuns who live in poverty relying on donations.

The part of the display about digging in the mid-1900's for St. Peter's tomb, in secret for a couple of decades, had me remembering Geraldo Rivera's dramatic unveiling of the supposed vault of Al Capone's wealth (which only contained some bottles). Apparently, the Vatican excavating crew found some bones that they thought were St. Peter's, so they hid them so they wouldn't be misplaced, then someone else found them and then they were place in a proper reliquary. Enough about that.

The gift shop had all the usual museum type stuff--reproductions of the artwork, statues of the some of the popes, calendars, creches and postcards. The only item that got me to open my wallet though was the Vatican Splendor shot glass. My sister and I were laughing so hard that the clerk was even laughing with us. He said something like, I see you found our "toothpick holders". I bought two--one for me and for my most Catholic friend.

After seeing the rest of the museum, doing a little shopping, we went to Moscow on the Hill for dinner. Its a Russian restaurant. I would like to go back someday when I'm not driving as they have flights of vodka you can order--six different kinds of their over a hundred kinds of vodka to try. I tried one shot of the house cherry vodka and thought it was excellent. It would have been a good time to use my new shot glass but I forgot it in the car.

Rome and Moscow, all in one day. I hope my mom had fun.

why don't lutherans have this kind of fun

If you move to Superior WI, you might want to consider joining this church. It looks like it has the potential to be a congregation that knows how to mix a little fun in with their theology.

The rent-a-sign says at Holy Assumption Catholic Church says--

BEER RAFFLE

TICKETS HERE

Now, if it had been vodka they were raffling off, I would have stopped to take the picture AND bought some tickets.

Making me Smile

Occasionally people will say something--and for years after, their choice of words will make me chuckle when I remember it. One of my supervisors, a man I really liked and respected, once said "I'm verbalizing what I'm saying". I can't tell you how many times in the past twenty years that has made me laugh. My good friend Susie once pointed out a "dark light" and I don't recall why she said it but only that we laughed hysterically--so it still makes me chuckle. Little darling #3 has, in all his young seriousness, said enough hilarious things to make me wonder if he was some kind of comedic idiot savant.

Now, some of the things that people say that make no sense, but make me chuckle, also worry me. There was a bit on Jon Stewart's, "The Daily Show"--I only saw the clip on You Tube, because we don't have cable (don't get me started on that) and I don't know the name of the woman who does comedy sketches for his show----but anyway, she was talking to people at the Republican National Convention about Sarah Palin's daughter, Bristol, being pregnant, and trying to get them to say the word "choice"--and finally one woman very reluctantly said "...freedom of choice--but that's different than being pro choice." I know I'm going to remember that one for a long time.

Today I was reading a blog about the Catholic Church allowing dissension among "good" Catholics about some issues, specifically, in this article, the death penalty and no dissension regarding the Catholic church's teachings on other topics, such as abortion. In response to the blog, a man named Dudley Sharp, wrote, in the comments section, "Furthermore, you can, rightly, argue that the death penalty is pro life." I just want to shake my head and say, "Dudley, Dudley, Dudley." If he was one of my kids, I'd probably say something wise like, "Hey, now, no more stupid talk" and try to make sure he didn't catch me laughing at him.