Scout-o-rama

Yesterday we spent the day at our district's annual Scout-o-Rama. All of the Cub Scout Packs and Boy Scout Troops from our entire district were there. In addition to being a fun day, it was a milestone day for my 11yo. He received his Arrow of Light award (highest honor in Cub Scouts)and "bridged up" into Boy Scouts. As the den leader, it was nice to watch the boys I'd worked with for years receive this honor. Here are 3 of my 4 boys after receiving the Arrow of Light award. (The fourth boy had a scheduling conflict.)



Here's my son crossing the rope bridge that was the symbolic bridge to Boy Scouts.



And now they stand as Boy Scouts at the end of the bridge with their new Scoutmaster and one of the older Boy Scouts.



My oldest son was also involved with helping to run the event. He did the cooking for his troop. Here he is making chicken and noodles.



And here he is (on the left) with a boy from another troop serving as emcees at the campfire circle in the evening. (The audience is off camera to the left.)

Thinker blogs

Working really cuts down on my blog time. If it weren't for weekends I wouldn't be able to blog at all. So this morning I quickly jumped online to start catching up with all my blog friends. Imagine my surprise when my friend Yogamum over at Yoga Gumbo included me in a list of her "Top 5 Blogs That Make Me Think". Gee, no pressure there, huh? And here lately all I've been able to choke out is rambling about Survivor and my haircut and my feeble job search.

This Thinker Blog thing is all part of something started at The Thinking Blog. Basically, the idea is if you are nominated you can apply an award to your blog page (which I hope to figure out soon). Then you go on to nominate 5 blogs that you consider to be "thinker blogs". Then they continue the process. On and on.

So I've been doing some thinking about who to tag myself. I have several blogs that I like to read. Two of my favorites are Yogamum's who nominated me and another friend that Yogamum already nominated: Just Making It Up. Since they were both already nominated, I wanted to choose 5 others. Hmmm...

It's hard to narrow it down to just 5, but here goes...

1. Ms. Kitty's Saloon and Roadshow - a Unitarian Universalist minister

2. Peacebang - another Unitarian Universalist minister who moonlights as fashion advisor to the clerical world

3. Spirituality and Sunflowers - a Unitarian Universalist who, like myself, has a passion for reality TV interspersed with deeper contemplations about life

4. UUMomma - the name alone should tell what I have in common with her ;-)

5. A Blog of Mystical Searches - this one isn't specifically Unitarian Universalist, but it is a great one for delving into religion and spirituality

Very heavily loaded with the Unitarian Universalist stuff, but right now that's what I gravitate toward. Don't let the fact that they're UU mislead you. Each of these blogs contains info that could relate to anyone else who considers himself or herself a thinker. I wish I didn't have to limit it to 5 because there are many more I could add.

Anyway, check out the links if any of them are new to you. I think you'll like what you find.

Must be award time

Last night I watched most of the Golden Globe Awards (although I do admit to flipping back and forth between the awards and Supernanny). Watching the awards, one of my main thoughts was how old I'm getting. Ben Stiller, who is only slightly older than myself I think, has gone gray. Some Hollywood main-stays like Geena Davis, Meryl Streep, Warren Beatty, Tom Hanks, etc. are starting to show their age. And who are all those new kids, anyway? At least the Golden Globes aren't as bad as the Oscars usually are. When the Oscars come out, for the past several years I've rarely seen more than one or two of the nominated movies. Who has the time or money to go out to the movies anymore? At least last night I was able to say I saw an award winner...Cars won for best animated film. And since the Golden Globes include TV, I at least have seen many of those shows.

I was disappointed that Desperate Housewives or The Office didn't win for best comedy. I haven't seen Ugly Betty yet. My TV dance card is just about full and I don't have the free space to be adding on these new shows. After watching the awards, I would like to see The Queen and Babel one of these days. But of course I'll wait till they are at Blockbuster or on PPV. Paying for 5 admissions plus accompanying popcorn and soda can put Mama G in debt as fast as anything. $3.99 for PPV is much more reasonable.

Alas, not to be outdone, the UU Bloggers are also having awards. Apparently this is their 3rd annual award confirmations. Being new to the UU Blog world, I have nothing to contribute, but I'm really curious to read the nominees, to vote, and to see who wins. Fun, fun, fun. If you want in on the action go to the UUpdater page at UUpdater