Journal

Last Wednesday, it started snowing lightly in the morning. G&T called to say it was snowing more in Lawrence and they wouldn't come to pick up things as planned. It snowed all afternoon and was beautiful - we got about 3 to 4 inches. It was still beautiful on Thursday morning by my pleasure had decreased enormously because I needed to get out of the driveway with our little car and Pat was in Austin with the 4 wheel drive truck. It was 0 degrees at 7:30 am but I put on my Hot Chillys and bundled up, got the Gator out and made a path in the driveway from the garage to the highway. My fingers were sooooo cold when I finished. I backed the car out and turned it around; that went okay so I figured I'd make it out which I did. There was still packed snow on some of the roads but everything went okay. A woman on the airport parking shuttle said schools had been closed in Kansas City and her business had also closed - some places in KC had 12 inches of snow. Almost all had melted by the time I returned yesterday from Atlanta.

Pat & I were talking with Kitty Lou last night and hearing more stories of her family and pre-married days. When she worked in Columbus, OH she lived at the Y for awhile and then moved with two other girls to a residence hotel called the St. Francis. KL said the hotel receptionist once said to her "You're the nicest bad girl I've ever met". We tried to find out why the receptionist said that but didn't get any good information. She did date a fellow from England while she was there and quit dating him because she found out he was married. Her boss at the time found out she was living at the St. Francis and told her that was not a good place for a nice girl to live - apparently had a reputation for quick stays.

Judge John Jones announced his verdict yesterday on the Dover, Pennsylvania trial and rejected the "teaching" of intelligent design as a scientific alternative to evolution. Millions of people with strong faith are easily able to incorporate evolutionary theory with their spiritual beliefs - why some cannot, is difficult to understand. Intelligent design squashes scientific curiosity and research - why bother to look for answers if we just say "Oh, that's so complex, must be intelligent design". There was a good article a couple of weeks ago in "The New Yorker" that presented the case very well and discussed the legal as opposed to the emotional issues that were involved. Now it we could only get Judge Jones to come to Kansas! (BTW, Judge Jones was appointed by "W".)

No snow, but temperatures in the 30's. Leah, Kitty Lou and Felicia went to 5:00 o'clock mass, Cat and Cynthia watched a funny Eddie Murphy movie - "The Haunted Mansion" and Tim kept the fire going in the stove in the old house. Per normal Karl behaviour, everyone gathered in the kitchen around the island while Christmas Eve dinner was in the works. We ate about 8:30 - we snapped our Christmas crackers, put on our silly hats and then dinner - wonderful Phelps cabernet thanks to Pat; beef tenderloin with horseradish sauce, roasted mushrooms, twice baked potatoes and steamed broccoli followed by coffee and cherry cheesecake. We trooped to the old house which was a cozy 70 degrees and Cat being the youngest handed out the gifts. It was fun to see what everyone got and each unwrapped their gift before the next one was handed out. Then onto a ping pong rematch between team Pat/Cat and team Tim/Cynthia - teams are currently tied in the series. Then one round of euchre, which Kitty Lou and Cynthia won. A lovely evening.

More Christmas crackers and then we enjoyed the traditional turkey, dressing (Kitty Lou's), mashed potatoes & gravy, cranberry sauce and scalloped oysters dinner. We were all so full after dinner that we delayed the pumpkin and pecan pie until much later in the evening. KL, Felicia, Leah and Cynthia played a lot of Euchre. Monday after Christmas, Pat, Leah and Felicia went to the casino - Pat and Leah played Texas Hold em and Felicia played the slots and roulette - Felicia was the big winner with $300. Cynthia and Cat went on an two hour hike around the farm and at Cat's suggestion followed the meanderings of the creek We ran into the cattle who were extremely curious - since several of them were bulls, we decided to go over the barbed wire fence instead of testing their amiability. Tim met us as we were heading back. Leftovers in the evening, more Euchre and then Cat and Cynthia watched "War of the Worlds". Today everyone goes home except KL - it was a fun Christmas.