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I recently started a six-credit-hour class called The Religious Quest, and as such, have had even less time to blog or update my site. :-( When I get a free evening, I’ll put up some new content, including a picture of an elephant!

Quite possibly the best damn cheesesteak I’ve ever had. Annie happens to be a former Jerry’s employee and knows how to make a mean sub. It borders on the too-good-to-be-true. I don’t want to know how many calories it has — however, I do know that she spread mayo on the bread after toasting.

I opened my mail today and discovered something from my phone company. They were offering a five-cent/minute long distance deal, but something wasn’t quite right about the nickel they depicted on the ad. Sure enough, I got a real nickel and compared the text. A real nickel says “IN GOD WE TRUST” left of Jefferson’s image. Verizon’s nickel says “FIVE CENTS”, as if a true depiction of US currency is somehow offensive. I also find it strange that they didn’t just put the word “Liberty” to the left of Jefferson’s image, as it appears on his right side on the real nickel. Maybe Verizon thought its customers wouldn’t get the connection between a round coin with Jefferson’s face on it and the “five cents/minute deal”, thus the explicit mention of “FIVE CENTS.”

At right, a random woolly sheep from the 2005 Sheep and Wool Festival.

Jade, Annie, and I went to Ray’s karate meet today. He’s a second degree black belt, and one of the judges on the panel. He’s depicted here testing his student Willie for competency. The youngest competitor was a twelve-year old girl, a first degree junior black belt at that. Definitely someone I wouldn’t want to encounter in a dark alley!

At left, approximately 1.4 pounds of farm-raised salmon, baked to perfection in my Black & Decker Toast-R-Oven®; cooked with a squirt or two of lemon juice, a few tablespoons of garlic-infused olive oil, and glazed with teriyaki sauce. Yes, I ate the entire thing, and no, I was not embarrassed to eat directly off the broiler pan.

Me: Hello?

PH: Hi, this is Purple Heart. Is the lady of the house present?

Me: There’s no lady here.

PH: Okay; then I’ll catch you later.

Is it just me or was this Purple Heart employee a bit sexist? I mean, does she think that men are incapable of donating clothes? HA! I have ten large bags of clothes (not to mention four other huge piles and a dozen or so shirts on hangers) in my living room as I write this. Purple Heart just lost out on the mother lode. Serves them right for being sexist ninnies. I’ll just donate it all to Goodwill in spite of them. The nerve to assume that only bored housewives with nothing to do in the early afternoon are the only people capable of putting bags of clothing or unwanted toys out for the Purple Heart truck! Then again, it takes prodding to get the average man to even take out the garbage, so I guess I’m beginning to understand. But still…

US Naval Frigate 52 slides down the York River, past the George P. Coleman Bridge, just northeast of historic Yorktown, Virginia.

Reagan’s funeral procession happened to go directly in front of the Museum of American History — the building I was working at that day. I went outside after work to find that a huge crowd had gathered to pay tribute to the man. It felt like Independence Day — patriotism and American pride filled the air. Everyone had a camera and it was relatively quiet. I watched in awe as the horse-drawn casket passed. People saluted, put their hands over their hearts, smiled, cried, took pictures… I even heard shouts of “I love you, Ronnie!” Personally, I had my hand over my heart and I heard myself sigh.

For once, the population was unified; Reagan’s historical and political stature seems to keep rising with every passing year. In hindsight, he was our best president and we were proud to call him our commander in chief.