Updates, Photos and Some Thoughts

I’m taking some time from my Paternity Leave to share a few photos, available via the photo link at the top of the right sidebar (gotta love Typepad’s Photo Album feature).  Many more photos will be available later this week.

The family is doing wonderfully.  Mommy and Cana are at the hospital, coming home tomorrow (Wednesday).  I am home tonight with Big Sister, giving her some special attention after several days of parental neglect.  We dined out (at McDonalds), enjoyed ice cream, and went to the theater (Cars, again).   And I am thrilled to be sleeping on my own bed rather than on the flimsy hospital cot that was several inches too short . . .  More photos and family news coming in a few days.

So, while I’ve been away from the news a lot has happened. 

• Christian Right poster child Mel Gibson – who is filming a miniseries about the Holocaust  – made a series of antisemitic slurs while being arrested for drunk driving.  Maybe all the hullabaloo about anti-semitism surrounding The Passion movie wasn’t overblown after all . . .
• Chase Utley has extended his hitting streak to 33 games, the best in the Majors this year.  Sources close to the Phillies report that the team’s management is quickly working to make his life miserable so that he’ll join other good ballplayers who have fled Philadelphia like bats out of hell (see Curt Schilling, Scott Rolen, et al).
• The Phillies traded away Bobby Abreu, Cory Lidle, David Bell and Rheal Cormier for a few batboys, a peanut vendor and a noose.
• Israel and Hezbollah are still trying (unsuccessfully) to annihilate each other while (successfully) sending Lebanon back into the Stone Ages.  Wow – just look at what we can achieve when we work together!
• Fidel Castro has gone on the DL and his brother Raul was called up from single A Havanna to run the country.  The Cuban American community in Miami celebrated and wondered if Elian Gonzalez was going to come back to Florida.
• Several women were "ordained" as Roman Catholic priests aboard a boat in Pittsburgh by a female bishop who was "secretly ordained" in Europe.  I think the ordination of women is a no-brainer, but this "ordination" makes little sense on so many levels.  However, it’s late and I’m sleep-deprived.

Thanks for the emails, comments, thoughts and prayers.  I’ll be back in a few days.