The Magnificent Seven: Who's your archangel?

I don't know much about "angelology", but my archangel is Gabriel. Gabriel is the angel of mercy.
The daily affirmation for Gabrielites is "Today I will embrace all that comes into my life and raise the spirits of others." (Sure, I will.)

Gabriel is "relentless and reserved", so at least I relate to the "reserved" part.

I'm tickled pink that Gabriel's main issue is emotional balance; perhaps I need to spend more time with my archangel after all.

ElderHostel

How sad is it that this is one reason I'm looking forward to turning 55 some day?

Today in History

The first passenger train went to White Pass on the WP&YR Railway.

Isn't that exciting? What would I do without my 2005 Alaska calendar?

"Happy" belated Valentine's Day

From The Saint-a-Day Guide's entry on St. Valentine's Day:

"The association of this date with courtship may arise from the mid-February fertility festival of Lupercal, or from the medieval belief that the birds chose their mates on this day. 'Valentines' were originally cards inscribed with girls' names, which boys drew by lot. [Apparently for fertility purposes???] Saint Francis de Sales once attempted to improve this custom by substituting cards with the names of Saints to be emulated, but they didn't catch on."

Gee, imagine that! And from my "adopted" patron of all people!

When you don't want to talk on the phone

I'm not sure if it cheers me up or depresses me to know that they make devices like this for people who are even less assertive than I am.

I can see how it works for strangers, but it would also crack me up to use "baby crying" to get off the phone with my friends.

"Oh, sorry, it's the baby crying; I have to go."

"Um, Roberta, is there something you want to tell me?"

Ingenious device or stupid gimmick?

I'm not sure. On my way to work this morning, I saw a car that had a magnetic ad attached to the back of it advertising this thing. I'm not good at visualizing spatial things, so I can't figure out if and how this works. I wish they had a diagram. (Oh, and also, this is clearly one of the things that I would never have around when I could actually use it...)

Go Red for Women

Heart disease is the #1 killer of American women. I'm wearing red today to raise awareness of that issue.

The most fascinating thing for me though is that many American landmarks are doing the same.

Below is just a small sample of landmarks that will be showing their support for Go Red For Women by going red themselves!

Niagara Falls
Washington Monument
Seattle Space Needle
Graceland
Ben Franklin Bridge
Pittsburgh Airport
King of Prussia Mall
American Airlines Center
Macy’s Jumbotron – Times Square
Hollywood & Highland Retail and Entertainment Center

State of the Union drinking game

Notes to self:

1. Stock up at liquor store
2. Pick up white guy wearing a suit

Why I am afraid I will never get another job...

The following is a current job opening with Xerox. I'm reading it, thinking, "Xerox. Cool. I can write user manuals for copiers." Sure, then I kept reading. Honestly, I'm not convinced that the stuff I bolded is actually made up of real English language words. Sigh.

Job Description:
eXpress yourself. Document your success. Fuel your future with the incredible opportunities and creative vision of Xerox. As the leader in outsource document services, we help top companies manage information and share knowledge every day. And this means great opportunity for you to grow your technical and people skills.

Current openings include: Senior Technical WriterTampa, FL

Serve as the lead writer on exciting assignments including handbooks and user guides, technical publications, logistical documentation and more. This entails organizing work for other writers, researching engineering changes, developing schedules, handling estimates and tracking status reports. Coordinating project management with our engineering staff will also be among your tasks. Our ideal candidate will be a self-motivated professional with an engineering background and experience with gyroscopic accelerometer based navigation systems. We also ask for the ability to interact with all management levels and thrive without supervision. A working knowledge of Microsoft Office applications, Microsoft Project software and graphics applications is also expected.