Yesterday it was the day a lot of SQPN friends had been looking forward to: the kick off of the SQPN Podcast Marathon. It would start at 12:00pm EDT and things would be a lot easier for Father Roderick if he wouldn’t have to present the first three hours all by himself. Therefore, Mark and I decided to hop over to Amersfoort to do silly things. The plan was straightforward: after Mass, hop on the train to Amersfoort, do some shoppings there and hop on the bus to Father Roderick’s.
The execution of that plan wasn’t as straightforward as I hoped it would be. When I wanted to go to Mass, I discovered I didn’t have the cash for a bus ticket and my “Strippenkaart” (from the National Tariff System) had only one strip left, whereas I needed two to get to the railway station, from where it would be a 10 minute walk to St. Joseph’s Cathedral. I had to walk to the mall to get cash from an ATM, causing me to miss the second bus of the hour as well, but I managed to arrive around 11:30am at the Central Station, where I would wait for Mark.
Together we discovered that our train to Amersfoort only would bring us to Zwolle and that we had to take a detour via Deventer to get there. There was planned maintenance at the railroad tracks scheduled for that day. When I checked the National Railroad Company’s web site, it just planned my trip if nothing was wrong and failed to mention the railroad works.
Later than planned we finally arrived at Father Roderick’s place, where the fun would take place. Go over to www.sqpn.com for more information on SQPN or watch us goof around at Fr.’s ustream page. The finale of our fund raise efforts was the Horror Smoothie Challenge and I embedded the video here. Look and shiver:
It tasted AWFUL. Really REALLY BAD! And I was nauseous for the hours to follow, and so was Father Roderick, I heard later…. But at least we raised $2000. Congrats to SQPN on MEETING THEIR $10,000 GOAL!!!
It’s an old custom to pray the Angelus Prayer three times a day: at 6:00am, 12:00pm and at 6:00pm. During the period of Easter, the Regina Coeli is prayed instead:
Regina coeli laetare, Alleluia,
Quia quem meruisti portare, Alleluia,
Resurrexit sicut dixit, Alleluia.
Ora pro nobis Deum. Alleluia. (Ora pro nobis rogamus, alleluia.)
I think it has been two weeks ago since I started on my journey towards a healthy weight. I have to admit that I haven’t been very faithful counting calories and exercising due to my headaches. But I’m not giving up! I noticed I eat far less compared to earlier, before I started to change my routine. I believe it is caused by the fact I am slowing down with my medications. I was on 40mg Paxil a day and I want to reduce that to 20mg first. I want to get rid of it entirely before the CNMC in June. I see how losing weight goes actually very quickly when I stop taking Paxil: I lost 8 pounds in two weeks already and I haven’t been very strict with the regime. I know that when I just continue eating like I did before I had to take Paxil, I will end up getting my old weight back.
Yesterday evening, late at night, I decided to finish the web site maintenance I was doing to be over with it today. A bad idea. Somehow I goofed up and before I knew it, the MySQL data base for taquoriaan.com crashed. Oops… It turned out that it was not possible to do some troubleshooting and quick repairs… all my blog posts, links, images, everything was gone.
I cannot be bothered too much with it, though. It’s just a blog, a thing. Nobody got hurt, the only thing that sustained minor damage was my ego. So with this new fresh blog, I’ll start over happily from square one again. My Dutch blog wasn’t affected, so I always can haul over some posts from there, if necessary.
Lesson learned: don’t mess with your blog’s back end software and databases while half asleep, even when you think of yourself you’re a WordPress genius.
Today, the Dutch celebrate the fact they are living in a free, independent democracy. Forty-six years ago today, the Occupation by Nazi Germany ended officially. Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom in general are so easy taken for granted, but they really are precious gifts we should cherish.
Groningen, Great Market (Grote Markt) before World War 2: medieval square with picturesque Dutch houses.
Groningen in April 1945 after the liberation by the Polish and Canadian troops: utter destruction. Most medieval buildings north of the Great Market were completely destroyed and replaced by modern concrete 1960s buildings.
Tonight at 8pm Amsterdam Time the whole country will be silent for two minutes, in memory of those who died during World War II, and the Dutch soldiers who died while serving for the United Nations in foreign countries for a more peaceful and safe world. There’s Dutch commentary to the video, but I think the images speak for themselves. After the two minutes of silence, the Dutch anthem is played. After Job Cohen, Mayor of Amsterdam commemorates how thankful he is to have Her Majesty Queen Beatrix among them, the crowd breaks into applause. This was for me the most touching moment of the memorial.
Today is a special day. It’s Good Shepherd Sunday, which means there’s a lot of extra attention to vocations to the priesthood in a lot of Dutch parishes, but for Amersfoort it’s an extra special Sunday: on May 3, it’s the feast day of St. Ansfrid of Utrecht. Saints.SQPN.com has the following entry for St. Ansfrid:
Also known as Ansfridus of Utrecht and Ansfried of Utrecht. Memorial 3 May
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Count of Brabant. Married to Hilsondis; father of one daughter; after the girl’s birth, Ansfrid and Hilsondis, lived as brother and sister. Courtier and knight in the service of Holy Roman Emperor Otto III and Saint Henry II. After many years of this life he realized a call to religious life, and in 974 he gave up his life as a soldier. In 992 he founded a convent at Thorn, Netherlands, which his wife and daughter entered; his daughter eventually became abbess.
Last encounter was with a whale, now a shark was at the wrong place at the wrong time. One of the Dutch crew members says he estimates it was about 8 foot long and he explains how they had to get rid of it using the spare 10 feet long sail batten to remove it from the right rudder. I guess they aren’t competing for the PETA award…
I found this video clip at the Dutch media portal zie.nl:
Taquoriaan RT @FaithandFamily: Moms: Are We Raising Future Saints?: This article from the Catholic News Agency entitled Vatican paper looks at fa.. ... [Taquoriaan].
Congrats to SQPN on MEETING THEIR $10,000 GOAL!!! 
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