Yippeeee! To any faithful readers that might exist, my humble apologies for not writing anything for two weeks. A week ago, I was involved in Irish Arts Week, which took up all of my time, and this past week my dad stole my laptop and stuck me with his Mac, which doesn't like Blogger very much at all. I tried to make and entry, but all my typing looked like ^^^^^^. Which is meaningless to most of us, though it may have some deapseated meaning for an alien race from a distant galaxy. The Klingon version of Cuneiform, perhaps?

There was an article in a history section of our local newspaper yesterday that I found very interesting. The article was about Hilaire Belloc's marriage to a woman from Napa in the late 19th Century. I knew he had married a woman from Napa, but what I didn't know was that they were married in my former parish. I can't say church, because the old church was torn down years ago to make way for the current architectural monstrosity, but the same parish. St. John the Baptist, established 145 years ago. Also, of course, many of the famous winery families from the area were married there, but who cares about them? Hilaire Belloc was married on the same plot of ground where I was confirmed and received my First Communion! I think that's pretty cool.

I finally broke down on Thursday, went to my local Catholic bookstore, and bought "Shorter Christian Prayer." We'll see how long I can keep this up.

Oh, and a bit more on the Letter:
I received a card from the pastor which said, " Dear Jane, On behalf of the entire St. John the Baptist Community, 'thank you' for all your support and ministry you give to the parish in sharing your musical gifts. You are generous and greatly appreciated. You and your familiy are in my prayers."
(Can you tell he used to be a CEO?) Now, I really am having a hard time figuring out what he is trying to say here. "Give" is in the present tense, so he is not saying goodbye, so what is he saying? My mom thinks that he just had to send an acknowledgement of having received my letter, but didn't really know what to say. That sounds likely, but does he have to not know what to say in such a confusing manner?