We had a great day celebrating Kyrie’s first birthday. First, we went to the zoo:

Then we headed back home for cake & ice cream:

And then we opened presents:

Today was a bit crazy. It was payday, so all the bills were paid. Then Rick came home and we headed out to Wal-Mart to get balloons blown up for Kyrie’s birthday tomorrow. It was interesting trying to stuff 20 helium-inflated balloons in our little trunk. Then it was off to pick up the Hello Kitty cake at the OTHER Wal-Mart. Then it was time for me to drop Rick off at work. Kyrie’s currently napping and as soon as she gets up we’ll probably be heading over to her buddy Finn’s house for his birthday celebration. I still have decorating to do, presents to wrap, and rooms to clean tonight in preparation for Kyrie’s party.

Oh, Kyrie did something cute yesterday (as usual). I turned the TV on just as an episode of Friends was starting. The opening line was Ross saying, “Remember when I had that monkey?” Kyrie heard it and started making monkey noises. Later on, Rick & I popped in a DVD of Monk. Either Rick or I (I can’t remember who) said, “You wanna watch Monk with us, Kyrie?” Again, she started making monkey noises since Monk is just a shortened version of the little animals’ name. She’s a smarty pants.

She’s definitely got me beat in both the hair and cuteness departments, but I think it’s apparent that she’s my daughter.

Scot McKnight has written a new book, The Real Mary. It will be coming out in January, about a month after the new movie, “The Nativity Story.” You can read a sample chapter here. Also be sure to check out all the great offerings from Paraclete Press.

I haven’t read anything on Doug Wilson’s written in months, but I have him in my feed reader, and I saw the title of a post about sacrificial crisis. Great quote:

“The sacrificial crisis, that is, the disappearance of the sacrificial rites, coincides with the disappearance of the difference between impure violence and purifying violence” (Girard, Violence and the Sacred, p. 49).

I’ve spent this whole semester talking about sacrificial crisis and scapegoats in my Western Lit. class. It’s all throughout the Greek tragedies that we’ve read. Oedipus, Antigone, The Bacchae, The New Testament. You all really need to pick up this book (along with the rest of Girard’s books).

So I’ve been lacking creativity with meals as of late, so a little help and some suggestions would be greatly appreciated. We’re looking for something reasonably healthy, not too expensive, and light on meats (especially red meats). Anything?

Kyrie is afraid of the inflatable haunted houses at the grocery stores like Sams. I find this hilarious. I have to say that I am a bad parent because I am always taking the shopping cart through the haunted house. I can’t figure out how she knows to be afraid of it. It’s an inflatable castle with spiders (which if she saw at our house, she would try to chase).

We ordered a Hello Kitty birthday cake yesterday. I’m really looking forward to going to the zoo for her birthday.

I am on a panel that’s presenting at the Louisiana Association of College Composition in early November. It’s in Baton Rouge, so as soon as I know what day we’re presenting, I’m going to see if we can’t schedule some time in New Orleans. They have a great zoo…and awesome food. I’m moaning just thinking about it.

I’m ready for a few breaks. Fall break is next week. Thanksgiving and Christmas will follow soon after. *sigh*

Out of curiosity, I went to weather.com to see what the current temperature was. It’s 76, 43% humidity (oh yeah!). Since I was already there, I put in my parents’ zip code to see what kind of weather they were experiencing. 76 degrees. Well, the humidity was only 31%, but I found it cool and eerie that at 2,300 miles apart in very different climates, we’re both at the same temperature. (OK, maybe I’m more easily amused and impressed than all of you, but I just felt like posting this.)

I am SO glad summer is over. Today is absolutely positively beautiful. We didn’t even reach the 80’s and tonight we’re supposed to dip down to 50 degrees. I really hope this is a long-lasting weather trend…preferably at least into Saturday (Kyrie’s birthday). We’re planning a trip to the zoo, and weather like what we’re having today would be as perfect as I could possibly imagine. My complainy attitude about the south tends to go away at about the same time that the humidity and heat does. It is true that sometimes Louisiana is a wonderful place to live.