Yes, I am still alive! Nov 13th

Hello!

Yes, I am still alive! I just have been extremely busy the last week or so and then I've come down with a cold. Just haven't felt like sitting down and saying anything. Right now, it's a cuppa joe and a fried egg and I'm feeling kinda wordy!!

Let's see, I left off election night...I am still relieved Bush won. I know this is the correct direction for the country. I am even more elated that Ashcroft is resigning as Attorney General. I never did like him, even when he was a senator from Missouri. Gonzalez looks to be a good choice. Evans from Commerce and probably Paige from Education are also bowing out. There is always turnover when the second term begins. I hope excellent choices are made and the Senate approves them without too much hoopla. I still believe that is the whole reason behind not getting the best people for the job---the hassle of confirmation and the fights that happen, not over qualifications, but politics.

The new job is going well. It is challenging and has worn me out a few times. The worst part of the whole deal is that I am still handling all the responsibilities of my previous job as well. No one has filled it yet. I am getting a new employee Tuesday, but she will be working in the Electronic Data Unit, not mine for the next month or two. So more work for me, but no one to dish anything off to. It's getting pretty old pretty quick!

Had a good day Thursday, Nov 11th, Veterans Day. Mom and Dad came in and Mom and I went to the Veterans Day parade downtown. It was little rainy and overcast, but the parade is always a great event.

Yasser Arafat finally has met his Maker...and I'm sure his Maker was very terse. How can the Palestinians look up to him as a great leader when so much innocent blood is on his hands, and so much of the Palestinians money was in his pockets??? True, he brought notice to the independence cause, but he did nothing to find a settlement to it. He knew that as long as it was not settled, he would have the attention and money from other Arab nations. Hopefully the new leaders will be able to hammer out a treaty with Israel and finally give the Palestinians the deserved homeland that the United Nations ripped away from them years ago. The UN made a mess of Iraq, Palestine, Yugoslavia, Korea and Somalia. When is the rest of the world going to wisen up and see that the UN is not an organization looking for peace, but one who is looking for existence?? We need to boot the UN out of New York and drop out of membership.

Well, the Chicago Bears are in town this weekend to play the Tennessee Titans on Sunday. I am not trying to go to the game--a lot warmer and less crowded here in my media room!! Plus the concessions are cheaper at home. GO BEARS!!!

Been dabbling in genealogy again. No breakthroughs yet---still on the search for information on great-great-great-grandfather Thomas Bell.

Went and saw Steff Mahan at 3rd and Lindsley Tuesday night. She was great as always! Small crowd however. No one from the neighborhood other than Andy and I. We need to bolster that number big time whenever she plays!

To my friend Chris--coffee is wonderful! So glad you found that you like the stuff! Come over someday and we'll have a "brewfest"!

To my California cousins--hello out there! I'm going to contact you shortly about our genealogy. I need to get some of these lines finished up and then publish!!

To my buddy Dave--hope you are doing well. I know you've been snowed under lately and this weekend is the culmination. Let's do dinner or something when you get a good break.

To Mary and Ed--the Blue Moon closed and now Bobby's Idle Hour has bit the dust...are they trying to tell us something?? We need to find a new place--maybe need to check the lease before we start drinking there to make sure it is long-term!!

To Robin, Molly, Sandra, Lindsay--my English cousins--hope you are all well. I hear you may be having an election too in the late spring. I love an election... I'm still working on trying to figure a good trip over sometime in 2005. I will keep you posted on it.

And to cousin Melissa in Vienna Austria--don't be mad at me that Bush won. We will do well!

OK, time to refill this coffee and get to moving on this day. I can't believe it is almost the middle of November already. Pretty soon it'll be lights and trees and carols and Santa! I love the holidays, but dread the shopping and crowds. This year I've already gotten a lot of shopping done. Even got my cards already---so unlike me! Am I getting old and responsible???

I'm going to close on a story and a prayer. Today is November 13, the feast of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini. She is the patron of immigrants...what better patron for an old mutt like me?? She was born in Sant'Angelo Italy in 1850. She became a nun in 1877. She always wanted to be a missionary in China. However, at the request of Pope Leo XIII, she sailed to America in 1889. She worked among the Italian immigrants in New York City. She became a shrewd businesswoman as well as catechist and soon opened convents and hospitals across North and South America. She became an American citizen in 1910. She founded 67 houses of her order, Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart, in 38 years. She spent a lot of time in Chicago, and died at Columbus Hospital in December 1917. She was canonized in 1946, the first American citizen to be canonized, and her relics are contained in a crystal coffin beneath the main altar of Mother Cabrini High School in New York City. Mother Cabrini is well known in Chicago and with her being a recent saint, many of the places she lived and work in are still there today.

Loving Father, through the work of St. Frances Cabrini You brought comfort and love to the immigrants and those in need. May her example and work be continued in the lives of those dedicated to You. May You watch over and guide all immigrants today and have mercy on all our immigrant ancestors. We ask this in the name of Jesus, Your son. Amen.

Now have a great day and a wonderful weekend!

Mark