dahlia

Vegetarians eat eggs & dairy, including cheese. Vegans don't eat eggs or dairy. They make vegan cheese.
While I espouse the vegan position and financially support vegan (usually in the form of anti-animal cruelty organizations), I eat eggs because as a diabetic, they are often the only easily available, portable, thing available that isn't full of carbs. Being lactose intolerant, I don't drink milk or eat much cheese, but I choose regular cheese over the fake stuff, because it is well...fake.  Like massively fake. Humans have been making cheese for millennia. I'd rather have a little bit of real food than the fake stuff. 
 

Just curious - why do you need help to shop? Physical limitations? 
Awhile back I was assigned to VT a particular sister. Let me back up and say that my ward is full of young things whose husbands are here for grad school. They are much nicer than I am. Anyway, apparently I was assigned because the young ones had been taken advantage of many times by this sister and the RS leadership knew that Sister Dahlia wasn't going to let that happen to her. I guess I have a rep. 

You know, this is a really good idea and much better than anything I would have come up with. 

You know, this is a really good idea and much better than anything I would have come up with. 

The problem that we have a lot is that when someone asks us for something, we assume their request will be a reasonable one.  When it isn't, we tend to second guess ourselves and think it's just that we're in the wrong.  It isn't usually until much later that we see things in hindsight and can decide that hey, we just got taken advantage of!  Of course, by then it's too late.
Shortly after I first joined the Church I was Home Teacher to a fellow who didn't understand the boundary.  One day he asked me for a lift to someplace, I forget now where it was.  It was on the same day as my son's birthday party, but I felt confident that I could give this guy a lift and be back in plenty of time.
Well, first, he wanted to take a "slight" detour to go to a blood drive he'd heard about.  This ate up a bunch of time.  Then, he wanted to swing by the Temple so that he could ask me to take a certain road to get there, so that he might relive the day he first saw it.  Then, another detour...  All the while taking exception to the music I had in my CD player (He didn't feel that a good Mormon had any business listening to Steppenwolf.)  Eventually we completed all of his extra requests but by that time the only way I could make it to my son's party before it was over was if we went straight there, not stopping to drop this guy off at home first, of course.
So that's what I did.  He objected, but I went to my son's party so at least I could be at the last half hour or so of it.  He sulked at a picnic table (The party was at a local park) and waited until I was done with the party.  This guy was so self-centered that he couldn't understand why I refused to take him home first, after he dragged me all over the county on his little errands like some kind of personal chauffeur.  Nevermind that I had originally agreed to take him to ONE place, and that all the extras cost me being able to attend most of my son's birthday party.
And no, he didn't offer me gas money.  (I drove him around for 3 hours in my V6 powered 4x4 pickup truck.  That wasn't cheap.)
Yes, we are called upon to serve our brothers and sisters in need, but it also falls upon them to make reasonable requests and not take the help for granted or behave as if they're entitled.  When they don't, it is reasonable for us to say no.

Maybe next time you get yourself to the airport, you should write a facebook "review" all about how "A-Class Shuttle Service" are fabulous and if anyone ever needs a ride to the airport, they should definitely call them at 555-555-1234.

Frequently our ward FB page will get requests to take someone, or some family, to the airport. Usually at some ungodly hour. 
I realize that we're supposed to do service, but aren't we also supposed to be self-reliant? I have had to go to airports all over the country and in a bit of Europe. I get myself there. I get a shuttle, or a cab, or an airport bus, or even a sedan, but I don't ask other people to take me. Mostly because I figure other people have jobs and responsibilities that don't include taking my lazy, cheap, self to the airport. If you can't get to the airport without begging for a ride, maybe you don't need to go on the trip? 
Do a lot of Mormons live where there is no transport to the airport? Is this something that's done out west (where I have also gotten myself to the airport)?  I just don't get it. It would never occur to me to impose on someone in that way. Maybe I'm more used to traveling for business, where taking care of yourself is expected. I don't know. 
Is it me or is it them?

Y'all come on over to my ward here in Colorado.  Multiple families tell me they were inspired to come here, are sad to leave, and try hard to come back - even 10-15 years later.  We've had a missionary so impressed he moved here as soon as he got released and married.  I think our ward facebook page has maybe 20-30% people who used to live here, and are still maintaining friendships.  I've heard the same goodbye-everybody-testimony maybe half a dozen times, heard it again yesterday: "I hated Colorado and almost didn't follow my husband here, now (sob, tears) I would do anything to stay here!  I don't want to leave!"  
 
(All of this happens despite me, not because of me, in case anyone was wondering.  I'm a grouchy introvert who has to try to remember to smile.)

Well what do you know: I have home teachers!  How'd of thought that?  I've never had home teachers in 10 years!  I better get some cookies out of the freezer so that they come back.... 
Anyone else ever have that realization?  

Rather than let Needle's untoppable blessing hinder me from posting my own, and rather than be stopped by the fact that I know there's someone out there who will claim this was coincidence or physics or some other non-blessing, when I know for a fact it was a gift from God, here's my simple blessing.  It meant unproportionally more to me than it might seem, but that's because I'm me, and God knows it.
I hate doing yard work.  But in spring of 2015, I made up my mind to fix the sprinklers I'd known weren't working right since the previous year.  I got dressed in my yard-work clothes, gathered the tools, had paper and pen so I could write down what to buy, I even had the car key in my pocket.  Then I prayed for help and the patience to do the work (cuz I have a history of getting angry at inanimate objects which waste my time  ).
I went out and turned on the first zone with a broken sprinkler (so I could lock it in the open position, turn off the water, and remove it for replacement).  Lo and behold, it worked.  I tried the next zone.  That one worked too.  I went through every zone and all the sprinklers that had not been working the previous year were now working.  There were a couple new problems, but they were simple ones where all I had to do was screw off the little 1"-diameter tops, go buy new ones, and screw on the new ones.  It took no time and made me immensely happy.  They're all still working this year.  I don't care how God fixed the "hard" ones, I'm just grateful that he did.  And I think if I'd only prayed for Him to fix them, it never would have happened.  I think it was my willingness and intent to do it myself without further procrastination which got me that gift.
I also think it was given to teach me valuable lessons - like that sometimes God will help us with simple things, even though we could have done it ourselves; and that God knows each of us and what we need; and that sometimes, all we have to do is ask.  Apparently, what I needed to learn didn't need the sprinklers to stay broken, it needed me to see God fix them.

Me too, practically 12 yrs in Catholic school, including a prep school in DC that was right out of 'The Trouble with Angels,' down to the scary Mother Superior. We had to kneel down and make sure our skirts touched the floor, or sister whacked us with a yard stick. Good times. 

Me too, practically 12 yrs in Catholic school, including a prep school in DC that was right out of 'The Trouble with Angels,' down to the scary Mother Superior. We had to kneel down and make sure our skirts touched the floor, or sister whacked us with a yard stick. Good times. 

Eric Weddle who played for the San Diego Chargers and now plays for the Baltimore Ravens stated that dependent on what time the game is, no matter where he is, he will try his hardest to find a local meeting to at least attend Sacrament meeting.  So while they play on Sundays, there are probably a few that do the same thing as him.

I'll be the first to admit I don't know a darned thing about sports, other than to say Go Skins!  and Go Blue!
After listening to all the hoopla about the guy who won't stand up during the Anthem, I wondered - are there any LDS football players? If you play on Sunday and probably can't go to church for months, could you be considered an active Mormon? We have a number of physicians in our ward and sometimes they are on call on Sunday, but being on call is different from choosing a career where you definitively will have to work on Sunday, and aren't we supposed to avoid those?
Just curious. If a guy plays well at BYU, is graduation the end of his football career? 

1. Mop
2. 5-gallon
3. Old oaken
4. Pail
5. Galvanized
...that's about it really.  I don't want a slop bucket.  Don't have room for an excavator bucket (or an excavator).  No helicopter, so a helicopter bucket would be useless.

That might help my discussion with him!

We have a ton of new families each year because folks come for medical and grad school. So early each fall we have a ward picnic, which is always fun. I bring my own veg burgers and hot dogs.
We also have a pie bake-off sponsored by the men. They bake pies (we have some good bakers, for sure) and the past couple of years they've been paring it with a preparedness thing.
Then there's the chili cook-off, also fun. 
With so many young families, most of our stuff involves food (tho that may just be a Mormon thing) and situations where kids can run around.

In the theater, I saw 'Independence Day 2' and I liked it. There's no accounting for taste, huh?
Yesterday after church, I came in on part of the old 'Odd Couple' movie. There is a scene were Felix is telling the Pigeon Sisters about his kids. He says he misses them terribly and one sister asks when he gets to see them. Felix lists a ton of times - after school, weekends, summer, holidays..  Considering how often he sees them, she asks, "When do you miss them?" and Felix answers, "Whenever they aren't here."
I just about died. I was crying like a baby and had to send my son the dialog and tell him how often I think of him, even tho he is a grown man now.  It got me a nice, "I love you, mom." email, so there's that. : )

No cliques.  The few people who tried to make them failed.

Was that the one about the gender-neutral planet and the person who thought she was female?
I don't care about a gay Sulu. It would be great if the movies kept to the canon, but once I saw Spock kiss Uhura, it was all over as far as keeping things the same. 
I used to go to the conventions and drag my son with me. I used ST references in my doctoral comps (failures of rational decision-making:see Vulcans). Given my background, I should be a purist, but I'm not. Although, as much as I like Benedict Cumberbatch, nowadays there's no reason not to use an ethnic person when the character is named 'Singh.'

Dear Tcrab's Bishop,
You have a very eager volunteer to be your next Ward Mission Leader. 
He is really excited to serve, please give him a calling asap! At a minimum, please assign he and his wife to be Ward Missionaries.
Thank you,
A guy who is swamped with serving inside his own Ward.

Was that the one about the gender-neutral planet and the person who thought she was female?
I don't care about a gay Sulu. It would be great if the movies kept to the canon, but once I saw Spock kiss Uhura, it was all over as far as keeping things the same. 
I used to go to the conventions and drag my son with me. I used ST references in my doctoral comps (failures of rational decision-making:see Vulcans). Given my background, I should be a purist, but I'm not. Although, as much as I like Benedict Cumberbatch, nowadays there's no reason not to use an ethnic person when the character is named 'Singh.'