random and true

This is one of my favorite products:

It's a great everyday lotion, and it's amazing on sunburns too. (especially since my favorite after sun cream was discontinued. thanks a lot, neutrogena.)

Anyway, it's a great lotion. Not too smelly, not greasy, does its job well.

Except in one way.

Take a look at that package design. Notice anything?

It's so convenient--stable, pumps out just the right amount, fits in the cabinet.

And so inconvenient, because of course the last 20% of the product is in the bottom of the bottle but away from the pump. At best, it requires taking the lid off and using the stick part of the pump (what is that called, anyway?) to scoop it out. At worst, there's significant waste.

I am not into waste. I hate wasting things--whether it be lotion or food. So I am the girl whose bathroom is littered with bottles of lotion, propped up upside down, trying to scrape out the last few drops. My refrigerator is full of leftovers (my friend Elizabeth insists that one day I'm going to get some horrible food poisoning from my leftover habit, but 34 years of solid food suggests otherwise). My laundry room has a bottle of detergent that I have literally squeezed. I use my sonic toothbrush until it stops vibrating before I change the batteries. I have, on one occasion, mixed coffees because I didn't have enough of either to make the cup. (two things: 1. This is not recommended. 2. Never do this with wine.) I turn off lights when I'm not in the room, and my TV/DVD player are almost always unplugged. I keep my thermostat at 80 in summer and 60 in winter, because to heat or cool more than that seems wasteful. I have blankets, after all, and a fan and open windows.

So this lotion bottle irks me. I want for manufacturers to think of these things. It's obviously possible to get both the convenience of the pump along with non-wastefulness, as lots of Aveda products are packaged that way. Help me out here, lotion-makers. I should not have to spoon lotion out of the bottom of the bottle.

I could offer a witty reflection on our throwaway convenience culture, and how we are destroying the planet with our consumerism and laziness. I'm pretty sure we all know that already, though.

Instead, I'm thinking about how often we think something seems great--it has 90% of what we want (convenience, aesthetic, quality) and so we go for it...without realizing that the 10% matters far more than it would seem. How do we, as individuals, as families, as churches, as political bodies make choices that sacrifice the 10% (whether that 10% is sustainability, or people)? What seems like a small thing worth compromising, like a design that doesn't all all the lotion to be accessed, or a million families' food security, or a veteran's mental health care, or a potluck with paper plates, or a few flowers on Mother's Day, or a mere pronoun...those seemingly small things add up: to an aching and groaning creation, a dramatic increase in suffering, a lifetime of hurtful theology.

In other words: while compromises must be made, be careful about what they are. The lotion bottle could just as easily have compromised the pump and still been great, without leading to waste. The real dishes can go in a dishwasher. The children who go to bed and to school with full tummies learn better and become productive members of society. The person who hears expansive language finds themselves in the Divine story rather than cast away. And so on and so on.

Everyone is compromised (thanks RAF), the question is: how will we manage those compromises?



dear Aveeno: please solve your lotion bottle problem. love, a devoted fan.

junk mail...not always junk?

I check my mailbox about once a week. Maybe twice. Or sometimes only once every two weeks. More than once, the mailman has stopped me as I have pulled out of my garage, to tell me the mailbox is full. Also more than once, I've checked the box only to find a note that they've taken my mail to the post office, and I'll have to go pick it up, with a side of stern-lecture-about-vacation-holds. (Except, of course, I wasn't on vacation...I just didn't get around to the mail.)

Once I get the mail, I take the whole bundle straight to the recycling bin, and I sort it there, before it ever gets into the house. Probably about 90% of my mail goes into the bin unopened. The other 10% is actually important or interesting or personal.

A couple of days ago, I was dropping things in the bin as usual (of course on the day after the recycling was picked up, so the massive bin was empty), when I realized that I'd dropped in the What On Earth catalog.

Now, I rarely buy things from these catalogs. But occasionally I've given in to a whim from this one, or from my favorite bizarre catalog of stuff I don't need.

And I really like to look at the pictures of stuff in these two catalogs. I find it a fun way to relax on what I call "pastor Friday" (aka Thursday) night. No brain required, just curl up under the blankets and flip the pages of hilarity.

So I went, headfirst, into the recycling bin to retrieve the catalog. This sounds simple, but seriously, the bin is over half my height. So it's no easy feat to reach to the bottom.

Tonight, I reap the rewards for that labor. Blankets, cats, me, the catalog. Page 1 has the martini/wine glass. I actually looked at this as if it might be a good idea. It's a reversible glass...one side is a wine glass, and if you flip it over, it's a martini glass. Very clever.

Turn the page, and in the center of the spread is someone wearing this shirt:

and I confess that I may have briefly broken the 10th commandment.

I wonder: if I were to wear this shirt on Thursdays, would the sermons be finished earlier than they are now? It comes in a t-shirt and a hoodie, so appropriate for both seasons we have here in Northern Illinois.... ;-)

things I should do

We're a third of the way through NaBloPoMo, and today is one of those days I'd be happy to skip. I don't have much to say today, and the prompts aren't calling out any creativity in me either (though the RevGal one was intriguing...while it was light outside. oops.). So today, a blog post about what I actually spend a fair amount of mental energy on:

stuff I should do, but usually don't. A non-exhaustive list:

the dishes
get up at the same time every day
exercise
eat something other than cookies for lunch
play with the cats (like with their feather toy, or other toys)
eat fruit
wash the towels
take out the trash
get the mail
clean my office
anything that looks like a traditional spiritual practice
write a sermon on thursday
shut off Facebook
vacuum
hang up my clothes rather than simply laying them over the closet bar
watch and return Netflix DVDs

That seems like a good enough list for today. The fact that many of these things are related to housework does not escape my notice. My kitchen is currently a disaster, with nearly all the pots, and all the bowls, and all the spoons being dirty at the same time. I'm not really sure what that means for breakfast tomorrow...it might just be coffee and cereal straight from the box.

The RGBP prompt for today was to take a photo out a window, and then write about something you notice in the photo that you didn't notice when just looking out the window. This reminded me of a practice I've been teaching in workshops lately: to notice five new things about the space you're in or the people you're with. In my house, this works beautifully because the fact that I rarely manage to do housework means there's lots of new stuff to notice: that cat fur that makes smily faces where the cat was laying on the carpet, the way the teabag tags lay against the edge of the mug, the precarious yet beautiful way the dishes stack up, the new location of the pen I like to keep handy (Andrew likes oblong objects, so he moves the pens/chapstick/etc to new places. it's useless to stop or resist this.)...

I'm pretty sure I just justified my not-doing-things by making it a part of a spiritual practice of noticing new things. I mean, if my house was clean all the time, and if I actually did all those things on the list, what would I notice? When would I have time to notice?

(something I DO manage to do: rationalize.)

6

It's only the 6th of November...the 6th day of National Blog Posting Month...and I already thought "oh dear, it's 11pm and I need to write something for my blog...I wonder if anyone would notice if it was more like an almost every day thing?"

So, in honor of the 6th day...6 things.

1. The day I happened to just pop some goat cheese into pasta sauce was one of the best fast-dinner-fancying things I've ever done. (And I did it again tonight.) Turns all creamy-deliciousness.

2. We are doing some really cool stuff at church, organizing around liturgical seasons and planning around scripture readings. This Sunday people can sign up for a 2015 season...and tonight, setting up the sign-up tables, I got to make things pretty with fabric and decorations, and it was great--and not only because the Pentecost fabric turned me all glittery.

3. It's almost time for the Faithbridge Interfaith Thanksgiving service, which this year is all music. I can't wait to hear what all these local musicians do with the theme of gratitude.

4. I am beginning to be cautiously hopeful that Ollie has stopped peeing on the carpet. Though I'm a little concerned that she may have just found a new spot for it, so I'm still going around sniffing the carpet every morning.

5. The scarves I bought last year in Paris are already staples of my winter wardrobe. Except it's only November. Yesterday, the pink and gray silk. Today, the purple and green paisley cotton. love.

6. I haven't turned the heat on yet. And right now, in a sweatshirt and pajama pants, under a blanket and a laptop, I'm actually kind of hot. If this keeps up, I might just make it to Thanksgiving. If that happens, I wonder if I'll be stubborn enough to hold out for Christmas? (spoiler: probably not.)

There you have it...six for the sixth. Aren't you glad I did this today and not on the TWENTY-sixth? haha.

advent, christmas, kitties, new stuff, weather, and travel

Because apparently I don't blog when I think about it, so then I have to cram everything into random dots.

*Advent = awesome. At church we got the new hymnal just before Advent, which gave us SEVEN verses of O Come O Come Emmanuel to sing. Love it. Add that to the Advent Wreath and its ever-evolving decorations to match the Elemental theme (fire, air, water, earth) and we have a recipe for fabulous.
*I confess that I didn't manage to keep up with every day of the ReThink Church advent photo-a-day project, but I did many, and I've loved getting emails and FB posts with other people's. We put them on a bulletin board outside the sanctuary. So great.
*Book group this month was children's Christmas books shared over the best hot chocolate ever. Love the Book Group.
*Of course, the weather has been ridiculous this month, and between that and all the insanity of life, I've definitely had more than my fair share of days when I'd really rather just stay in bed. If not for hungry cats, a great therapist, and interesting work I might have just hibernated for the whole season…

*Christmas also = awesome, and it hasn't even technically started yet. The Live Nativity was super fun, complete with Kelijah the camel.
*My dad (yes, I know you're reading this, dad) only managed to open one of his presents early and without warning (dad! who opens boxes they didn't order during December??), and to spot one of them and know what it was before my brother could intercept and wrap.
*A dear friend sent me a new board game that I can't wait to play…someone come over and play Forbidden Desert with me, seriously.
*I ate about a pound of fudge while making bulletins for January.
*And soon…very soon, in fact, TONIGHT, I'll be on a plane to a place where the temperature is more than 80 degrees warmer than it is here. Because here it is below zero, and there it is 79 degrees. See you in 14 hours, southern california!

And now to pack…if I can keep the kitties out of the suitcase. :-)

weekend interesting

Okay, so between being sick, getting ready to go to Europe, and Ideas Week and I've been too busy rushing about doing fun things to actually post all the cool stuff I've seen on the interwebz in the past couple of weeks. Consider this your opportunity to waste all of Saturday sitting in front of the computer, because none of this is particularly time-bound, but it's all awesome....

First, before you do anything else, go over here and support Carrie Newcomer's latest adventure--it'll be worth every penny and every moment!

You need to see this. So much more to the world than we can see or even imagine.

There's also more to us, our potential, our community, our creativity, than we can normally see or imagine. 

And then we break for TEH CUTE:


Ever wondered how it's possible that every single apple looks exactly the same at the store, but they don't ever look like that on a tree? Turns out that's not good, actually. (I know this is not a news flash to those of us who are avid farmers market shoppers...but then why on earth is it still true at the store???)

Want to be happy? If you've ever paused to read the cover (or worse, the articles) of a magazine in the checkout aisle, you've probably accidentally internalized a whole bunch of messages about happiness. Ditto on ever watching TV, seeing an advertisement, or being on the internet. Or, you know, living in western culture. But this is the only article you need about being happy. Seriously.

And then you need another break of adorable and happy.

Now for some church related stuff...

The internet angst about millennials (and everyone else) not being in church continues. This week I've seen articles about why churches don't grow, how to ensure your church dies or doesn't, young people old people in between people and church, men and women and teenagers and church.... And thankfully some research. (in the research, regular churchgoing = 1x a month!! Think about that for a moment...)

Those who stay were twice as likely to have a close personal friendship with an adult inside the church. Millennials need guidance on engaging culture meaningfully, and from a distinctly Christian perspective. 

This idea of finding a way to bring their faith in Jesus to the problems they encounter in the world seems to be one of the most powerful motivations of today’s practicing Christian Millennials. They don’t want their faith to be relegated to Sunday worship, and this desire for holistic faith is something the Church can speak to in a meaningful way. 

Young people want to be taken seriously today—not for some distant future leadership position. In their eyes, institutional church life is too hierarchical. And they’re not interested in earning their way to the top so much as they’re want to put their gifts and skills to work for the local church in the present—not future—tense. 

 Related...

How we think about Jesus matters. a lot. Otherwise how can we be more like him?

Speaking of being like Jesus....I was once a kid on food stamps and free lunch. Let's make sure that a) help is available for those in need, and b) no one grows up shamed for that need.

Ensuring that kids don't go hungry in our own neighborhoods doesn't preclude us from making sure kids elsewhere don't go hungry either:



And while we're thinking about other parts of the world, ponder this for a moment. Just a few years--within the lifetime of many who read this blog--makes a world of difference. Perhaps we should spend our time and energy ensuring that the world of difference is for the better, not for the worse. One way to do that is to be aware that things like this have happened, and it is fascinating and distressing all at the same time. Seriously, be sure to click through this one.

And then to end on a high note: SO MUCH FLOOFY HAPPY ADORABLE!

Friday Five: ready for a break!

Over at RevGalBlogPals, Deb offers us a way to grab a little rest in the midst of the crazy. Just when I thought summer was going to be calmer, June was a whirlwind with so few nights at home that I barely remember what my kitchen looks like. Sounds like Deb had a similar month!

Whoosh! My calendar is packed. And June is almost gone! There's the old saying, "Bad luck comes in threes" but I've decided that "Busy-ness comes in fives!" So this week we'll take things five-at-a-time. 

Tell me:
 1. Five flowers you'd like in a bouquet or in your garden: 

I'd love a bouquet of sunflowers, gerber daisies, roses, tulips, and perhaps a calla lily (the only lily I can be around without dying of pollen, apparently). I think sunflowers are so lovely, they just make me happy. And tulips. Roses are the only flowers that smell good. So, there you go.


2. Five books you want to read (or re-read):
OMG, just five? Well, two are sitting on the ottoman, waiting to be read before the library deadline: Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel--historical fiction of the Henry VIII era, told through the perspective of Cromwell. I'm in the middle of the 3rd Game of Thrones book, and several work books. Things I'd love to just stop and read again: Lamb and all of Harry Potter. (Yes, I cheated. oh well.)

 3. Five places you want to visit:

I've been plotting about the possibility of a trip to Europe sometime in the relatively near future, so I'm daydreaming about Paris, Geneva, Wittenberg Cathedral, Berlin, and Prague.
I've also been pining after another trip to Rome, a visit to Australia (perhaps to do a real-life Camp NaNo with Kirsty!), and daydreaming about the Woodstock Inn in Vermont, which is probably the nicest place I've ever stayed in my entire life, and they keep sending emails. LOL.

 4. Five people you'd invite for tea/coffee/beer and pizza: 
Sticking with those currently living, at time of writing:
Michelle Obama
Jon Stewart
Joss Whedon
Nelson Mandela (gonna have to hurry, but it will be epic)
any of the hosts from the Stuff You Missed in History Class podcast.
(this would be the most interesting pizza-and-wine party in the history of ever.)


 5. Five chores or tasks you'd gladly give to someone else: 
litterbox duty
dishes
writing meeting agendas
checking the bank balance
can I list unloading the dishwasher as separate from doing the dishes?
(the fact that I found this list difficult speaks to two facts: 1. that I pay someone to vacuum and clean the bathrooms once a month. 2. I don't gladly give control of many arenas to other people.)

 BONUS: A five ingredient recipe! (This is harder than it sounds!)

spinach enchiladas (6 ingredients if you eat dairy...) :
saute spinach, mushrooms, garlic together until soft.
cover bottom of baking dish with enchilada sauce.
spoon spinach/mushroom mixture into soft flour tortilla. Cheese is optional--if you want it, put it in now.
roll up and place seam-side-down in baking dish. When dish is full, pour enchilada sauce over the top. Put a few mushroom slices for decoration on the top of each enchilada. or shredded cheese, if you so desire.

bake about 20-ish minutes, until bubbly. serve with refried beans on the side. mmmmm....

Friday Five: if...

Karla over at RGBP gives us a themeless Friday five today.

 1. If you could hear what someone is thinking for a day, who would you choose, and why?
ooh....well, the evil part of me has many answers for this. But really, I would very much like to hear what my cats are thinking for a day...because really, I do wonder!!

what's going on in there?

 2. If you were trapped in a tv show for a month, which show would you choose, and why?
Doctor Who, obviously. Because think of all the places I could go and things I could experience in a month of time-traveling!! (plus it would totally feed my "I can save the world" complex. haha.)

 3. If you could do any job in the world for a day, what would it be?
Is it wrong to say "a job that pays a lot per day"?? LOL. 
I think it would be interesting to be a foreign diplomat for a day. Think of all the insight you can gain into the world's political systems even in just one day....

 4. What are you loving right now?
That it is not very humid in Louisiana this week!

 5. Use these words in a sentence: bless, cheeseburger, chihauha, skipping, Georgia.
And the chihuahua, skipping to the table, held up the cheeseburger, blessed and broke it, and said "Georgia, this would be for you if I hadn't licked it first." ;-)

random yet fun

When I'm doing things around the house (cleaning the kitchen, cooking dinner, lounging on the couch) I often listen to podcasts.

I will note that in our book (due out September 30 2013), we actually advise AGAINST this kind of thing, because the spiritual practice of being in the moment, simply being present to what you are actually doing rather than distracting yourself by multi-tasking, is super important. Yes, I'm admitting that my own spiritual practice is lacking sometimes. Though I think we could probably make a case for the spiritual practice of podcasts, too. (okay, it's a stretch. But I probably could do it. It would just take longer to rationalize.)

So anyway, I often listen to podcasts around the house and office. When I was painting the bathrooms this summer, I listened to a LOT of podcasts. When I cook dinner for Wednesday Night Dinner (which I'm not doing these days, but I did a lot in the spring), podcasts. When I clean my office (hahahahahahaah!), podcasts.

Some of my favorites are: Stuff You Missed In History Class, How To Do Everything, RadioLab, God Complex Radio, and of course the usuals (Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, On Being, This American Life).

I have learned a ton of random stuff from podcasts. I love hearing biographies of people I've never heard of or people I think I know about, I love the random prank ideas (of course I'd never use any of them...), I love the "listener mail"--letters/emails/facebook notes from people around the world writing about stuff they do and things they wonder about.

Today Stuff You Missed In History Class posted a podcast on a topic I asked about. I haven't listened to it yet, but I'm super excited!

Where's the "listener mail" feature of church, I wonder?

language

I know this sounds kind of petty, but I have been irritated by the ways people have been using language lately. I don't know if I'm more sensitive to this kind of usage or if it's been getting worse, but here it is anyway.

"They" are not "the gays."

Nor are "they" "the poor."

these are people we're talking about...people who are gay, people who are poor, people who are homeless, people who are hungry, people who are straight, people who are rich, people who are in debt, etc.

Unless I'm going to start hearing about "the straights" on NPR, I don't want to hear about "the gays" either. (can you tell I was listening to a story about DADT on the radio this afternoon?)

Ditto for "the poor" or "the needy" or "the homeless." Those are not descriptors of WHO they are, they are descriptors of the situation they are in. That is not the same thing.

Please, people, use language in a way that does not devalue human beings. Because that is what we all are, regardless of any other way we might find ourselves described--we are people, children of God, part of a community, and worth the extra effort to avoid de-humanising.

/rant

while I was procrastinating on a sermon...

Acts 2...make your own at wordle.net.

o'dark thirty

is right now.

This is the first Sunday when I have woken and readied and (probably, I haven't done it yet, but...) left in the dark.

I don't care what the calendar or the seasons say, it's winter.

sigh.

changing

The weather is changing...well, as much as it can from a cold grey summer to a cold grey fall. It's chilly. The sky is covered in clouds. The wind is cool. The windows are not flung wide, they're just letting in a little fresh air. The kitties are snuggly. My closet can't keep up. It gets dark earlier and light later every day.

Yesterday there was a butterfly that hung out on the screen of my office window. She just sat there for about half an hour. I suspect there's also changing going on there.

The fall routine is beginning to settle in--with crazy busy weeks followed by crazy busier weekends. Youth group, confirmation class, Inquirers' Class, Sunday School, fellowship events, meetings, planning...the switch from summer to fall has seemed more difficult this year, but I'm not sure why. It just seems...more jarring than usual. Maybe because summer weather didn't come until right when the programming/calendar switch happened, so it felt like summer but the full calendar boxes said fall. who knows.

I like the changing of the seasons, I really do. But I could use some sunshine, and about an hour more sleep and three hours more working time every day. It's crazy hard to do the amount of work that needs to be done when it's cloudy all the time!!!

so exciting!!

Exciting news from the San Diego Zoo!!

and so I asked myself...

...do I have anything to blog about today?

let's see, some random dots of randomness:

* i watched last night's fireworks display from my bed--it was clearly visible just over the house across the street. cool.

* Ollie is sneezing again in spite of the medicine...but I'm hoping that continued regular dosing (hard sometimes given my crazy work schedule) will make it go away.

* Andrew is just as furry as ever. and just as determined to lick my face when he's hungry, even if it is 2am. or 6am. or any other time when I'd prefer to be sleeping.

* it's sunny outside again.

* Yesterday's children's time was very long because I lost my train of thought and was unable to regain it even with repeating myself. Had no idea where I was going at all, even though I had carefully thought out the plan ahead of time. Awesome.

* I really need to stay on top of the whole dishes thing, but I just don't like to do dishes, and so I don't. They pile up in the sink until I need more bowls, then everything goes into the dishwasher overnight (off peak electricity time!).

* I am trying to figure out an opening for my "between the sheets" chapter in the spirituality for young adults book Amy and I are working on. (the chapter is about sleep as a spiritual practice--get your minds out of the gutter, sillies!) Once I have the opening, I think the whole thing will flow, but I obviously haven't found that opening yet because it's all still in my head.

* we are doing Sunday morning Taize soon (in two weeks, I think) and that's so fun and exciting and I get to put it all together today! woohoo!

* speaking of today, I guess I should get a shower and get my act together, eh? time to get moving...

thanks

Today I just want to say "thanks" to all of you who are my friends.  I really appreciate you guys/gals!  And, as I'm in the process of getting to know a new--ish friend better (someone who really needs friends), I want you all to know that you're awesome because now I have the capacity to be a good friend too!

Also, to those of you who may work in seminary-type environments:  please start telling students that parish ministry is very isolating, even if you're not serving in a geographically isolated area.  It's hard to make friends when you're fresh out of the tight-knit group that is a seminary class.  It's hard to make friends when you're the pastor (or pastor's spouse).  It's hard to make friends when you don't have disposable income or much free time.  Most people don't seem prepared for that shock of isolation, and have no tools for coping other than a telephone call to other friends who are similarly isolated.  People need to know this so they can at least mentally prepare a little!  

And to those of you looking for friends in a new place:  it's hard, but please do it.  It's so worthwhile to have good friends who can support you, challenge you, and all around make you a better person. Take my word for it, I'm lucky to have a bunch.

dots for the day before thanksgiving

• There are too many LIT christmas lights up.  And too many blow-up Santas.  At least don't turn them on/blow them up until Friday, people!
• There are no frozen french cut green beans to be had in all of Crystal Lake.  You would think grocery stores would stock extra for this, the biggest of all food holidays.
• Porgy and Bess was a super fun opera to see--though, of course, painful on the women-are-property and the crippled=not fully human fronts.  But the singers were, for the most part, excellent, and the acting was better than most operas, and we had amazing seat: fifth row, center!  Thanks Nancy V.
• I love the TBM melt from Cosi.
• Northwestern is still a prohibitively large hospital.  And how come anyone can just walk right in to the ICU?  I've never been at a hospital with such low security on that.  The doors are open, come on in!  Bizarre.  Those people are SICK!  Every random person should not be able to just waltz in there with their germs.  I'm just sayin'.
• I'm hungry and am going to eat dinner now....now that I've been to the hospital and lunch and the opera and the train station and all the grocery stores in town...it's time to eat and relax with the kitties on this cold evening!
  

Dear Grammar Police,

I confess that tonight, while preaching the sermon posted below, I came up to the sentence that mentions "from where we have come" and, in the moment, decided it sounded too stuffy.  That's right, I intentionally ended a sentence with "from" so that I would sound more approachable from the pulpit.  "We remember where we have come from," I said.  (sigh)  I plead guilty to dumbing down my grammar so people would like me better, and doing so in a public speaking position.  Dangling participles, here I come.  

So sorry.

I don't think anyone noticed (or if they did, they didn't mention it).  The sermon was a home run, by all accounts (especially since 2/3 of the people were from other faith communities and so don't hear me preach all the time!), so perhaps I can be forgiven just this once?

really?

On my way home from church tonight, I saw some people in devil costumes stealing Obama yard signs. On a major thoroughfare. It was dark, but anyone driving by could clearly see what was going on.

Really? You're that desperate, three days before the election, in ILLINOIS? I have some news, people...

a little fun

in the midst of all the craziness of my life, this makes me happy. I watch the pandas several times every day, for a few minutes at a time.  It's like enjoying creation without going outside!  Plus pandas are cute and cuddly and funny.  Hopefully I'll get to visit in person at christmas time!  until then, watch away...