Happy Birthday, Robert Burns!

Houston and I just got home from the Burns Supper, hosted by the Abilene Pipers Association. We had SO much fun...we ran into friends, enjoyed the music, and ate WAY too much (yes, we both tried the haggis!).

Not only did Sue bring me the photos you see here (her husband sent a CD of images and movie clips), but also check out the link provided by Robert in blog comments to see lots of images from the 2008 supper. (Just a note...next year's Burns Supper will have to be really spectacular since it will be Burns' 250th birthday!)

The most rousing poem of the evening, performed in song by a band called The Axe Wounds (hmm...I might have that wrong...a band called The Axe Wounds? I'll see if I can find the program to check on that!), was Burns' "Scots Wha Hae." Read the lyrics for yourself, and you'll see why it was so powerful.

Our Scottish great-grandfather, Homer Reid, would have been so proud of Houston tonight, holding hands with strangers and singing "Auld Lang Syne." What a lovely evening...and it doesn't hurt that this even sparked Dear Nephew's interest in playing the bagpipes!

Thanks to Sue, who is a terrific piper, for so generously treating us to tickets.
We'll buy our own next year!

When everything's closed on New Year's Day...

...what do you do? Go to the park and see the crazy, crazy artwork Abilene has to offer.

The statue from the book Santa Calls by William Joyce...the BEST statue in town!

Sudsy.

Oh, if you could only see this up close.

You can not begin to know. There is so much unspeakable about this sculpture (you can't even see the pigs sprouting, fully-formed, from the earth behind the two-faced creature with the empty back!) and yet, it's WONDERFUL. (It's like The Kramer--loathsome and offensive, and yet you can't look away!)

Happy New Year, everybody! Try not to be jealous of Abilene's SWEET artwork...

Why didn't Santa bring ME a Cooler Blaster?

Okay, there are a few bad words, but it's so funny and good-natured that I just had to share!

Your favorite books of 2007?

Of all the books you read last year (not necessarily published in 2007, but read last year), which were your favorites? Did you read any stinkers? Re-read any classics?

Off the top of my head, my favorite "grown-up" books were Prayer: Does It Make a Difference? by Philip Yancey & The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan; my favorite YA novel was Shackleton's Stowaway by Victoria McKernan. (McKernan really did her homework on this book, traveling across the Atlantic to interview the relatives of Perce Blackborow, Shackleton's real-life teenage stowaway.)

What about you?

P.S. You won't regret following the Pollan links above...REALLY interesting. The thought of my Irish great-grandmother, Annie Larkin, reading the ingredient list on a tube of Gogurt made me laugh out loud...

Update: Last night, as I tossed and turned worrying about money, sleep seemed such a remote option that it only made sense to read. The first book I grabbed was Anna Quindlen's Good Dog. Stay., and IT WAS WONDERFUL. Pull out your credit cards (or library cards, if you're broke, too!) and get this book as quickly as you can. And if you're borrowing the Abilene Public Library's copy, I apologize for the little mascara smudge on page 75. (Mom was right...you should always remove your makeup before bed.)

Here's to the revolution.

"Jesus is more counter-cultural than any counter-cultural figure. No one in the last 2,000 years, as far as I can tell, has said anything even approaching the radicalism of the teachings of Christ."

--Moby, Sojourners magazine interview (January 1, 2007)

May your 2008 be filled with tenderness and laughter and compassion and simplicity and fellowship and forgiveness...and may the life of a radical carpenter from Nazareth guide and inspire us all.

P.S. And speaking of laughter...FALISHA CAME TO VISIT US TODAY! Photos coming soon...well, as soon as she mails them to me. :-)