The Lion of the Senate

I would assume all of you know by now know that Senator Edward Kennedy has passed away. There are of course hundreds of articles and posting of it everywhere on the internet and news coverage on tv and radio. I am sure if any newspaper is left in the coming days it will have at least one major headline about the funeral. Next week magazines like Time and Newsweek will have his face on the cover.

When I was growing up I could not understand older generations fascination with the Kennedy family. After all they were just one family and they were just politicians. Well some were in late high school and college I found myself becoming more and more interested in politics and as of about two years ago the Kennedy family itself.

I think the thing that strikes me the most about the family is how much it has given to this country. A son who was killed in the war, a son who was a president, a son who was killed in California, a daughter who inspired a sister to take up the cause of people with support needs, a daughter who founded the Special Olympics, a daughter who was an Ambassador and now the last son, a Senator.

Regardless of what side of the aisle a person may sit on there is no doubt that Senator Kennedy had an amazing career as a public servant. He has been credited as a major in player in all of the following:

Civil Rights Act of 1964
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990
Family and Medical Leave Act in 1993


Thank you Senator for all that you did for our country, may you rest in peace sir.

Thingy

This is my new roommate. I know what you are thinking. Why did Andy go out and buy a rodent to make his place smell even worse? Well I didn't buy it, I am a foster parent. One of our program staff owns this genie pig (Thingy). It is against camp policy to have pets live on camp so I said I would keep it.

Now why did I say I would keep it? Well it says in the bible, "It is not good for man to be alone." ~ Genesis 2:18

It is time I learned to share my space once again. I have become a creature a habit and comfort and a roommate is just what I need.

Well maybe I said yes because at one point last year I was thinking about getting a fish. I mean I stare at the wall a lot I might as well stare at a fish that moves.

There might have been some compassion in helping another person, but lets not go to far with giving me altruistic credit.

Perhaps when I said yes 6 months ago I thought Thingy might of kicked the bucket by now, relieving me from any obligation.

There are many rumored reasons why, but as Kant says, a man can never truly understand his motives for action.

Welcome to your new home Thingy, I hope you like it hot in the summer and cold in the winter because I am too cheap to run the air or heater.

Keep up the fight

Sing A New Song

So the new organ has finally been installed at church. It sure looks beautiful doesn't it? It is amazing how the community really pulled together and supported this project. It also included remodeling the back wall of the church for 8 custom speakers. It is the final chapter in a two year project. It is great.

Now, can anyone play the organ in our church? Anybody.... anyone.... how about you sir, no.... o well then it's a good thing we ripped out the old organ that was never used spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the new one. Don't worry it has four different styles to play in so if you do play "American" or "German" or the one of the other two styles I forget right now, you can play it.

I wonder if this is what Protesters (Protestants) mean when they say that the Catholic church gets/gotten to caught up in material possessions.

Now don't get me wrong I am not saying a person, or church, can't have nice things, but how about something nice that we use. For example the piano in the background is used almost every Sunday. I would support a top of the line quality piano for the church.

One good thing about it is that we as a congregation are very musically gifted. I dare you to find a better group of singers then 150 Catholics at a 8:30 Mass on a Sunday. We truly make a joyful noise unto the Lord. The organ with it's soft gentle tones will really accent the beautiful harmonies of, "Just A Closer Walk With The."

Hold on... this just in: the word on the street is that there is a woman who goes to the Methodist church who can play an organ, and that she might be willing to play every other month or so.

In other news, I have been busy at camp the last few weeks. Even though summer camp is out we still have a lot going on. I have been hosting groups and doing some facilitation of programs for the last two weeks. It has kind of made me feel like a counselor again. It has been a refreshing reminder of just how hard our counselors and program staff work. It is truly these front line workers (not the administration) that really make camp what it is for our participants.

A quick update: All power and water services have been restored to the county. For those of you who didn't know, last week we had a huge storm that left 80% of the county without power and the town went into a water boil advisory. Don't worry my water was fine to drink because I didn't have power to boil it, or at least I didn't notice if I got sick.

Keep up the fight

The harvest is near

Here are a few of my plants. As you can see I am not going to get a huge harvest but something is better then nothing. This is my green pepper plant and now the peppers are about the size of golf balls. You can kind of see a tiny one at the intersection of the window.
The green beans did terrible this summer but this guy went to town all of a sudden.
These are onions dad planted after all my peas died.
So far I only have two zucchini and you know I would love to have 22.
You can see I have one almost red tomato and another on the vine. I also have a great mint plant below that dad gave me. Actually there are 5 different kinds of mint down there.

Keep up the fight

Happy Birthday

That's right folks, A Cage of Words is one year old today. In order to celebrate we made a cake. Stop by the headquarters and we will cut you a piece.

What a year it has been. When we look back over the past year there have been so many blessings that have come our way here at A Cage of Words, it is hard to express the joy we have on this day.

First of all I would like to thank you all for your loyal readership. If it was not for you the reader we would not be here. You helped decide so many important things over the last year. For example what scooter colour would be best and what length of beard Andy should have. We also realize that in these tough economic times you are looking for the best way to spend your entertainment time and we appreciate you choosing us.

Let us not forget that today is also the feast day of St. James. It is from this saint that Andrew James Miller got 1/3 of his name.

You may also notice the new look. We like to keep things fresh around here and though a new coat of paint on the old walls would look nice. We hope you enjoy it.

Thank you for sharing with us this special day. We want to leave you with something special so we are going to re-posting the link to the book, The Prophet by kahlil Gibran. Remember it is from this book that this blog in named.

Keep up the fight

Breakfast in Bed

This week was a bit of a unique one at camp. We ran two short sessions in one week. The first group of campers came from Sunday-Tuesday and the second group came Wednesday-Friday. It was a fun week with 86% of campers coming for their first time.

Since we had no campers Tuesday night, we had some fun staff events. First on the list was pizza in Bloomington. Then we came back to camp for an ice cream bar. It was the good stuff, like Ben and Jerry's. To finish the evening we watched some movie (I went home and went to bed).
The best part of the extra time off came when we all got to sleep in on Wednesday. When I woke up it was raining. Not a hard rain, but a nice soft rain that makes you want to stay in bed. It was also cool and I had the windows open so it was perfect day to just stay under the blanket. I decided it would be nice to have breakfast in bed so you can see I went and got my bowl of cereal and enjoyed it before starting the long check-in day.

Keep up the fight

Family and Friends

Well there are so many things to update you on it is hard to know where to start. I suppose the best place to start was with the family visit. It was a great visit. It was so nice to see the family and we got a lot done during the visit. Dad did an excellent job painting an accent wall in my living room. It really brings out a lot of other colours in the room and really makes the room much warmer. Mom also did some wonderful decorating in the apartment for me. The one flower basket on the wall is receiving some odd looks, but the frames, wall art and wine rack are a big hit.

We did manage to visit two wineries while they were here. They went to a third local one without me, but that's ok. They also did some shopping, toured the sock factory, went to Bloomington, hit the outlet mall, watched two sets of fireworks and lost to me in Jenga.

Mom, dad and grandma left last Wednesday and the apartment settled down a few days until my dear friend Ryan came down from Chicago for a weekend visit. His visit was a welcomed distraction from the typical summer weekend and we also enjoyed a few wineries and some shopping. Ryan is also always good for a new recipe or two and he did not disappoint when he cook me some stir fry and rice. The great thing about his dish is that you can add more sauce if you want, but it is not overly sauced to start with.

Other than that there are just a few other minor details to mention. I crashed a giant pontoon boat into a dock... whups. I also hit the 600 mile mark of Andy (the name of my scooter as they now call me Scooter). I got a new polo shirt at Old Navy. I think that about wraps it up.

Keep up the fight.