A blog entry gumbo...

 What with selling the house so that we can buy another house and move next month, as well as the holidays coming and going, along with kids coming home and leaving to resume their appointed rounds, I find myself not having the mental capacity to write anything coherent.

As a result, here are some bits and bobs that have been popcorning around in my noggin lately...

• We received a large stack of papers from our mortgage company regarding the house we are trying to buy.  Included in this stack of papers are three figures that the casual reader, who knows nothing about real estate, might consider to be the amount that we'll owe at closing.  Being a bit confused I called our mortgage rep who said that the actual amount we'll owe at closing will be a completely different number.  Glad I asked, said I...why then do you have so many different numbers listed in this paperwork.  We're required to, he said.  Oh...that explains it.

• Kid 3's attempt to transfer from Texas Tech to Sam Houston State was foiled by the short time frame between the fall and spring semester, so she's headed back to Lubbock.  She was registering for classes last week and I was chatting with her (I forget about what, exactly).  She said, "They don't take much crap in West Texas."

• Was out with the wife a few months back doing some shopping.  As happens frequently I said something to her, and when I didn't get a reply turned to look at her, but she was gone.  I backtracked through the store and found her holding a purse in each hand.  One was a nice brown leather very sensible "Mom-type" purse.  In her other hand she was holding a purple plaid fabric number.  She looked at me and said, "Should I do what's expected of me, or should I just be me?"

• I understand that the Holy Father has appointed some new Cardinals (at least I thought I heard that last week).  Are these new guys more trustworthy, less trustworthy, or about the same as the current bunch?  How many of them have skeletons, or kids, in their closet?  When I was younger I would never have asked that, but after the Church's stellar reputation lately, all Catholics should be asking that.

• If Rick Perry somehow wins the election, does it trouble anyone that he will be President of the very country that he, as Governor, suggested that Texas secede from?