"An Army of Women . . ."

Last Friday we were at a friend's house for a church get-together. Our pastor is resigning, so it was kind of a farewell gathering for him and his wife, who everyone will miss very much, including Nathan and me, who only met them two months ago. Our church, part of the Scottish Episcopal church, is not very large, but has provided wonderful encouragement for us in the last weeks. It is a beautiful and biblical combination of the true preaching of the Word and the true celebration of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. I have never, in all my life, felt so genuinely refreshed by church, and I'm convinced it is that combination of Word and sacrament that is so powerful.

Anyway, at this little gathering on Friday night I was chatting with our pastor and another member of the congregation. Our pastor has a kind of booming, jovial voice and this other gentleman is the epitomy of the very English professor with a wonderfully dry sense of humor. We were discussing World War II in England, since both of their parents had lived and worked through the war. Our pastor mentioned that his mother spent the war X-raying bombs to make sure that they had no defects. I mentioned that women in the States also worked during the war, but when the men came home, they were expected to quietly return to their lives as mothers and homemakers, which many of them did not exactly wish to do.

Our pastor boomed out, "Yes, that's the mistake you women made! Why anyone would want to get trapped into the workforce, I don't know! Here women could stay at home in peace and quiet and raise their children, and yet they insisted on going out into the workforce!"

I sensibly proposed that perhaps not all women wanted to stay at home and have babies. Our pastor paused, clearly searching for the proper responce, when the other gentlemen neatly stepped in to save the moment, saying very benevolently, "There's that famous old quote from Chesterton: 'An army of a thousand women will not be dictated to. So they all went out and got jobs as secretaries.'"

Moment of silence, and then great guffaws from the men! What could I do but join in? It was SO funny!

Mustard and Conditioner, Hold the Tomato...

As it is a royal pain to lug heavy items from our supermarket (1 mile away) to our flat, we have taken to ordering groceries from Tesco.com. They deliver for a nominal charge, so once in a while we splurge and order a variety of goods online.

Anyhew, a couple of days ago we got a shipment. They brought everything but one item. They didn't have Christina's Garnier Fructis Active Fruit Complex Conditioner. When Tesco doesn't have a certain item, they send a suitable alternative. Except this time the alternative was Lay's Chip Sensations - Chili and Coriander flavor. As delicious as they looked, we rejected their proposed substitute.

This is a problem, people. When haircare products begin sounding so edible that they're interchanged with fried potato goodness, we may properly predict the end of our society.

Christmas Memories

Nathan's mother, Lisa, came out from California to spend Christmas here in Scotland. We had all sorts of fun exploring Edinburgh, going shopping, snapping pics and doing fine dining. Z came away from his first Christmas with all sorts of new (often funny) clothing and a new best buddy, a stuffed cow named Mobley.