Sunday, May 26

Photos from our trip to the zoo here.
World's tiniest baby goes home. Weighed 10 ounces at birth (at 27 weeks gestation), was up to 4.4 pounds after three months.
Wicked, wicked. Wicked funny, that is.

Don't read if you're into being all positive and everything, and don't say I didn't warn you.

A Pastoral Letter: This piece came in "over the transom" and is rumored to have been written by the most poisonous clerical pen in the English-speaking world.

Hey! Guess who else was at the zoo?

Try everyone else in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Seriously. We arrived at 11 am, and the parking lot was full. People were parking on the grass. But once inside, it didn't seem all that crowded. The place is expansive enough to accommodate a lot of people, I guess.

It's a nice little zoo, although I was always hold the Knoxville Zoo in first place in my affections. Joseph was moderately interested. Stared at peacocks, monkeys, kangaroos and warthogs. Was indifferent to giant tortoises, giraffes (too far away) and zebras (same). He was most taken, as you might expect, with the goats in the petting zoo. Taken isn't the word. Highly entertained and fascinated would be more like it. I have some cute pictures of those encounters which I'm in the process of uploading. They're particularly appropriate since he's wearing his overalls and looks like a regular Farmer Joe.

In this farm exhibit, they have this surprising little area in which you can pick up and baby chicks. Surprising because I thought that surely as much holding as those chicks get during the day can't be good for them. But there they are, in this big box in a shed, unsupervised by any zoo personnel. That, in fact, provided our only scary moment. Katie brought a chick over for Joseph to touch. He reached out and tried to grab it - by the head.

Now he's crashed on the couch, David apparently gave up on his big work plans while I was gone and is at the golf course, Michael went to buy chicken wings (race is about to start) and I'm going to try to knock off most of the next parables chapter. Hah.

Good Morning and a blessed Trinity Sunday to you.

Don't look for much, if any blogging today until this evening. I think we're about to head out to the zoo (went to Mass last night, okay?) - "we" being Katie, Joseph and I. The two men are working - David's last day of school is this Friday, and he has a couple of papers, a couple of projects and several exams over the next few days. Today he's got to do something for chemistry, write a paper on the Jackson State Incident and start another paper comparing characters from Chronicle of a Death Foretold with characters from some other book. Michael's working on a book all day. I'm a little stir crazy, and a trip to the grocery story just won't fix that today, so to the zoo we go. Back later, maybe with some pictures, too.

Pope visits Bulgarian monastery ; health seems to deteriorate by the minute:

The Vatican has confirmed that the pope will visit Canada, Mexico and Guatemala in July and his native Poland in August. As if to end speculation that John Paul might decide to retire while in Poland and remain in his homeland, the Vatican said he will go to Croatia in September for a beatification.



"The condition of the pope is visible to all," said Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls. "He will continue to travel within these limitations. The pope notes the big show of affection wherever he goes, and this encourages him."



However, one of the Orthodox churchmen who welcomed John Paul expressed alarm at his condition. Metropolitan Simeon praised the pontiff's mission and goals but said: "I think people around him should tell him he has to stop. He is suffering like Christ."



Wrenching. Heartbreaking. But on this Memorial Day weekend in particular, it's important to remember. The New York Times pulls together accounts of final telephone calls and emails to produce an terrible view from inside the World Trade Center on September 11.