Spaghetti Pie

 What to do with leftover spaghetti?  I found a recipe for spaghetti pie and made it my own.  Here's the recipe.  First you need leftover spaghetti.  

a pie plate

about a pound of ground meat

half an onion chopped

1 glove of garlic chopped

3/4 tsp. oregano

salt to taste

pepper to taste

1 can crushed tomatoes

1/4 cup parsley

1/2 cup mozzarella

Spread the leftover spaghetti into the pie plate, going up the sides of the plate.  Cook the ground meat with salt, pepper, onion, garlic, and oregano.  When the meat is cooked add the tomatoes and stir.  Add parsley.  Taste.  Adjust with salt, pepper, as needed.  

Put the meat mixture in the pie plate, over the spaghetti.  Spread it evenly.  Sprinkle mozzarella liberally over the top.

Bake at 350 degree oven until the mozzarella is melted--about 20 minutes.  Enjoy

Curses Can Be Broken

 A friend of mine recommended Fairy Tale by Stephen King.  I tried it.  I found it odd that every time I was going to quit reading it, the story became interesting. As it came out to be, I read the entire book.  It is ridiculous, but it is a fairy tale and they are ridiculous.

The narrator is the main character.  Charlie Reade is likeable, strong, honest, and everything a hero should be.  Since Charlie's mother died, his father became a drunk.  Charlie prayed to God to have his father to stop drinking.  Being in a similar situation, I know praying to get someone else to change doesn't work.  Free will!  But Charlie made a bargain with God that if his father stopped drinking, Charlie would dedicate his life to doing good deeds.  Again, I know from experience, that making bargains with God results in outcomes that aren't what you want.  However, they are in a way.  I guess God is just smarter than us.

Anyway, back to the story of Charlie Reade. Charlie's good deed was helping a grouchy old man and his dog.  Through this man, Mr. Bowditch, Charlie finds gold (literally).  A hole in Mr. Bowditch's shed leads to another place and time.  Remember this is a fairy tale.

Charlie's adventures in this new land is the story.  They're hair raising, but this is not a scary Stephen King book.  I did not have nightmares.  I found how the two worlds, above and below the ground come together, interesting.  It was a different type of book for me, and Stephen King.

AI and Peace

 A board that I serve on wanted to change its meeting time.  We used a program called Genius, which is a scheduling program which recommends the best time slots for meetings.   There were about twenty of us.  We put in the times we would be available for meetings.  Genius did its computing.  

The result was that there were no times that everybody could attend.  But it listed some suggestions.  Actually, it was me that spoiled Genius' choice.  The time it picked was the time my walking group, walks. I reasoned that our meeting was only once a month; I could miss one Walk.  I also could just leave the group, or end the walker earlier, or just do a short walk--once a month.  Anyway, I capitulated.

That's not what I want to point out.  I was thinking that if AI can figure out a way to schedule meeting times to placate everyone, why couldn't we use AI to settle world-wide problems?  Every country could express their needs and ask AI to satisfy everyone.

Remember AI didn't actually satisfy all members of the board.  I had to capitulate.  The same probably would happen with countries.  Every country would have to agree to negotiate.  

Doesn't everyone desire peace?  Why wouldn't every country agree to abide by the negotiated agreements they devise?  

I can think of one, maybe two, reasons.  One, needs are not wants, and the countries need to see that.  Secondly, of course, the countries' leaders/negotiators, are human.  Errare humanum est.  

Ugh, another wrench in my plan.  Ephesians 6:12.

A Deliberate and Constant Remembrance

My previous post explained how I found this crucifix.  As I cleaned off all the dust, the corpus fell off.  I guess my sins put Jesus there, why am I having such angst nailing Him back?  You know what.  I'm going to glue him back.  I don't have those itsy-bitsy nails, anyway.  

Why don't I just leave Jesus off the cross and keep it that way--a cross.  I think it's because I need a reminder just how much Jesus loved me.  He loves me enough to suffer for me.  Thank you, Jesus, for loving me!

Don't Judge Me

 This morning, I knocked over my hairbrush.  I need my hairbrush.  It fell off the back of my dresser.  

Picture the back of my dresser.  We have lived in the house for forty-six years.  I have never dusted the back of my dresser.  Think what that means.  Dust galore!  

Since I need to brush my hair, I had to look behind my dresser and see where the hairbrush landed. As I retrieved the hairbrush, I saw my old cross.  I had forgotten about it.  I think it may have been my grandmother's.  She had one like it.  I actually have another, exactly the same.  Maybe that's why I never missed it.  Anyway, I retrieved it.  This is what this picture depicts.

There is a corpus (body) on this cross. As I was dusting it, the corpus fell off.  What now?  Nail Jesus back on?  

Meditate upon that thought.

Key Moments

 Marianne Budd is the female priest, who has served as the bishop of Washington DC since 20011, and is no stranger to controversial decisions.  In her homily for the 2025 prayer service for Donal Trump's inauguration, she stressed compassion and mercy toward the marginalized.  This did not sit well with the President and his cabinet.

When I saw that she had written a book on how to be brave, I bought it.  How We Learn to Be Brave, at first seemed to be just a memoir.  More into the book, she tells how other people stepped up, when the time called for it. 

This is a book that highlights how people when faced with certain key moments react: Jesus, Esther, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King, etc. They seemed to all be willing to take risks.  They didn't give up.  Not that they are always successful, but they persevere.  

We do not choose where we are in the human story,

only how we live in the time we are given.

Adult Fantasy

 If you liked

Princess Bride, I think you will like The Magician of Tiger Castle by Louis Sachar. This book is touted as Louis Sachar's first book for adults.  Think Princess Bride for adults.  It has a princess, a magician, tigers in the castle's moat, and other fantasy kingdom tales.  It's an easy read.  When my book club picks books for next year, this book is definitely one to read around the holidays, because we want easy, short books.

The story takes place around the 1500's, in a land that doesn't exist now.  It was somewhere between Italy, France, and Spain.  The princess is betrothed to a prince. However, the princess falls in love with a scribe.  The magician is called in to make a spell to change their minds.  The magician narrates the tale.  

I like the short chapters.  It's like flash fiction.  It is labeled adult because there are sexual innuendos, and a house of prostitution.  Sachar does it so tastefully that I don't think a young teen would get them. 

If you are not an old grouch, I think you will like this story.