Oh, the Lord is good to me ... sung to the tune of the song we used to sing in Sunday School when I was a kid.

I believe I'm in the midst of a revolution in diocesan publishing - it involves linking diocesan newspaper web sites to Catholic Online in what the owner of Catholic Online calls aggregation - working together. It will be good for him, but it could be revolutionary for the newspapers. Now, to try to make it work for the newspapers, which starts with helping them catch the vision. Very exciting.

Finished the Christmas shopping today and managed a nice interlude at Barnes and Noble. We're watching our spending this year, but a little bonus I got from the office should cover all of it, including a new fake Christmas tree I bought. Yes, I caved into a fake tree - next, I'll be putting it away fully decorated and covered with a plastic bag like my mother used to do. Old age isn't creeping up on me, it is thundering behind me. I got tired of cleaning up pine needles. It is just not the same since we can't walk to the bottom of the hill and cut down a tree. I finally pulled out my winter coats this week; the grass is still green. Now, I'm not complaining about this, you understand, but it is hard to get into the Christmas spirit.

But Neal, my gay hair dresser (indeed, it is true) is playing Christmas carols (he says he's an athiest, but Silent Night is playing on the sound system) and I've been blasting Catholic Christmas carols in the car, so I guess I'm in the "spirit." I volunteered to lector at my new parish and said I'd do Christmas, so the first time I lector will be on Christmas Day - I'm also set for New Years Day. The good thing is if I screw up on Christmas Day, 3/4 of the people there won't even know anything is awry.

Better get to writing those Christmas letters!

woman at the well