I went to church today. I haven’t attended church of any kind much in the last few years, and I don’t think I’ve ever attended church on Sunday before, so it was a bit strange. Stranger still, however, was how similar the United Methodist service was to the Seventh-day Adventist services I grew up with.
Almost everything about the format of the service was similar, from the organ prelude/postlude to the sung hymns to the children’s story to the sermon itself was extremely familiar with a couple of notable exceptions:
First, I noticed that the text for The Lord’s Prayer printed in the bulletin had a footnote encouraging people to use “Mother”, “Parent”, “Creator”, or “Abba” in place of the word “Father” if they were more comfortable. More significant to me though, was the number of GLBT couples and individuals who were in the audience, and the fact that they were welcomed by the church with open arms.
This particular church, the King Avenue United Methodist Church, operates under the motto of “Open Heart, Open Minds, Open Doors”. They’ve been specifically active in attracting the gay demographic in Columbus (marching in the Columbus Pride Parade, etc.), and their membership has been increasing at a rapid rate.
Now before anyone jumps to any conclusions, I should say that I don’t have any plans to join or even attend on any regular basis, but I do have a few (gay) friends that attend this church (although I didn’t see them there today), and I may join them on occasion. I do find it somehow comforting to know there are churches/congregations who would be accepting if I felt the need for church again. Somehow, I don’t think that the church I grew up in would be so eager.
While we’re on the subject of food. I just made this soup for the first time tonight and it was delicious: Creamy Beet Dill Soup. A really nice blend of flavors. (Oh, and I substituted soy milk for the cream and it was just fine.)
Here’s an interesting food secret: Cauliflower is a tricky little vegetable. Boiled and mashed, it tastes surprisingly similar to potatoes (both of which are quite plain tasting on their own, after all). Why is this interesting? For starters, compared gram per gram, cauliflower is much lower in both calories and carbohydrates. People with certain dietary restrictions can’t even eat potatoes (how sad).
The down-side of substituting cauliflower for potatoes is that potatoes are generally much cheaper per weight, but on the up-side, there’s no peeling involved.
The key is to boil the cauliflower (I use bags of frozen, pre-chopped cauliflower) beyond the point that you would normally boil them (i.e. over-cook them). Then drain, mash, season, and serve, exactly as you would potatoes.
If you are concerned that people are going to notice the difference, you can start slowly by combining cauliflower and potatoes, cooking and mashing them together.
New blog game (passed along by Lu): Take a recent paragraph from your blog and have either Google Translator or Babel Fish Translator translate it into a foreign language and back to English. This is my previous post (Spam, Spam, Etc.) sent through a few iterations:
For this Gmail thinks, if the fact of phosphorus, those for the parents during the alloy confirmation as in the cover as my email of the screen to satisfaction and the slow age in the grain, as I read, but, always has this Spam, that acquires this, to consider to see very well examined, if this the interior which shows for something the confirmations, distribution of the unjustice with me a payment, which the Spam, which here. The end would wish to consider, to consider in it the payments: Swiss Empanada of the Spam, the paper which it Spam of the moneies of the brandelli or the acute Spam Kabobs! Really syntonizing.
I appreciate that Gmail thinks it’s being clever when it match the advertisement links at the top of my e-mail screen with the content of e-mails I’m reading, but every time I check my spam folder to see if any messages made it in there by mistake, I am treated to a spam recipe. I do not want to see any more recipes for: Spam Swiss Pie, French Fry Spam Casserole, or Spicy Spam Kabobs! I really don’t.
| You Are An ISFJ |
| The Nurturer
You have a strong need to belong, and you are very loyal.
A good listener, you excel at helping others in practical ways.
In your spare time, you enjoy engaging your senses through art, cooking, and music.
You find it easy to be devoted to one person, who you do special things for.
You would make a good interior designer, chef, or child psychologist. |
What’s Your Personality Type?
Which apparently puts me in the same category as both Queen Mary I (“Bloody Mary”) and comedian Jerry Seinfeld. Who knew?
I was under the impression that Highlights Catalog wanted to keep me around as long as possible. Yesterday, however, they ran out of work for me to do. Unfortunately both supervisors were out of the office, so one of the employees I was working with had to give me the unofficial news. Today, I got the official word that although they loved my work, they just didn’t have enough to keep me busy right now (and after I had just gotten my e-mail account and everything).
I have two jobs I’m currently applying for (including the internship at Highlights so I may be back) and OfficeTeam (the temp agency) is putting my resume in for a temp-to-hire job starting next week, so hopefully I won’t be between paychecks for too long.
