Category: Personal

I would like to find a statue of St. Lawrence to put in my kitchen. I’m going to carve a small niche out of the wall for him, and perhaps also flowers and/or another statue. Anyone know where I can get one? This is the only one I can find, and it’s pretty good, but a little small (2.5″).

I know I have some fans out there who are wondering, “Where has Eric been?” This post is for both of you.
I have taken a new job with The Man, a.k.a. the Federal Government. (As opposed to The Moon, which was my previous employer.) My new position is with a large government agency that I will call the Nameless Entity, because a) most of my work will be on classified computer systems; and b) I don’t want anyone googling me by searching on the agency’s name, and returning this blog. Basically, I don’t want to get into trouble.
The change is a good one. For one thing, I don’t have to be “on call” in the evenings and weekends, which my wife appreciates. It’s a little more money, not a huge amount, but I certainly won’t complain. My building is in a good location and my commute was shortened by about 10 minutes, unless they move my desk to some other building (The Man always likes to keep you guessing.)
I’ll post more soon, I promise.

Gee, and I thought I had it bad with my 2001 KIA Sportage. (I’m still waiting, almost seven weeks later, for their customer service support to fax me a letter they claim to have sent out six weeks’ ago. I need this before Friday to import the car if I wish to avoid a nasty fine.) This poor fellow allegedly hasn’t even racked up 30,000 miles and his KIA has been in the shop nine times! (Mine has only been in the shop three times over the past year. And the second time was shortly within the first, so I’m tempted to count them as one breakdown.)
Here are some other horror stories with KIA cars. To be honest, mine has performed quite well since the first two visits (mind you, the car is in the shop having its brakes looked at as I blog this), but the customer service in trying to have this car imported has been horrible. For example, when I called KIA Canada today to complain, George at Extention 5085 said there was nothing KIA Canada could do because the car was purchased in the US. He would neither forward my call to a manager nor provide me with a last name. “I don’t have a last name,” he snapped when I ask. “It is just George at Ext. 5085.”
Jason Cook at KIA USA was pretty polite this morning, but he couldn’t forward my call to the department allegedly looking after this or wouldn’t give me their phone number. But if I think he said some guy named Wayne Spencer was suppose to be looking after it, and Jason stated he would pass him along my name and phone number. I’m still waiting to hear back.

My friend has asked me to do a reading at his (Protestant) wedding service, and I get to pick the reading. The other reader is Jewish and probably will pick something from the Old Testament, so I’d like to select something from the New. Anyone got a suggestion? Not the one from Ephesians. (You know the one.)

United States Marines are on the verge of exterminating the lawless thugs of Muqtada “Mookie” al Sadr today in Najaf. This is an advance for peace: there is nothing Arabs hate more than a loser, and once we demonstrate that Iranian-backed Islamists are losers, any support they enjoy will melt away.
To my brother Marines: I pray that God might give you safety and success. May your bullets strike home, and may the enemy lay down their arms, or else their lives. Let the name “Marine” continue to strike fear in the hearts of evil men.
UPDATE: This quotation is priceless. I wish I were in Najaf.

“We’ve pretty much just been patrolling and flying helicopters all over the place, and when we see something bad, we blow it up,” said [Major] Holahan, executive officer of the 1st Battalion, 4th Marines Regiment.

(full article)