Even on the weekend?

Hello:

I thought I would go ahead and make a post today even though it is Saturday morning. One of my personal goals for this project is that by engaging in some writing everyday, I will jump start my novel project (though I would be satisfied with completing one of my short-story ideas). I'm one of those people with thousands of ideas and hundreds of works in progress. I think that if I could ever just finish one, the others might start dropping into place. I have become a master of every advoidance technique ever devised. I'm tempted to drop a link to an MP3 of the Beetles' "Paperback Writer", but I'm not interested in walking the labyrinth of copyright issues right now.

I have to admit that I am enjoying creating these BLOG posts. I may have to spin off a strictly personal one soon though. No matter how many times I embed the "hold harmless" language that I'm not Catholic and that this BLOG does not represent any official communication from Liguori Publications, I still find myself hesitating to write certain things or to widely distribute links to this site. For instance, in the first paragraph; I changed a reference to myself as a "poor bastard" to "one of those people". I specifically wrote this paragraph so that I could say "bastard" but give it some context.

Today promises to be incredibly busy. Ordering a new roof for the house (EXPENSIVE), going to a wedding shower (NOT CHEAP), dinner at my friend Liane's house and finally riding in the Moonlight Ramble. I don't think that I've mentioned it before, but I am an avid cyclist. At least, I want to become avid. Right now, I am probably a bit more rabid than avid. This year, I've been trying to do 100 miles a week and am just shy of 1,000 miles for the year. That may sound like a lot to some of you - but I know people who do more than 7,000 miles in a year. I ride with Team Lion's Choice here in St. Louis. Our big event each year is the MS150 ride to support Multiple Scelorosis research. You'll here a lot more about that soon, because I'm hoping that some of you will pledge my ride and help me raise money. I don't have the link ready for that yet though - so save up your dollars. I made a note for myself to set that up for tomorrow's post.

Geesh, it doesn't take much for these posts to become long. I'll try to school myself to break them up more in the future. Don't leave yet, I still want to feature a Liguori product. The title for today's post is Mary, Mother of God Her Life in Icons and Scripture which was Edited by Giovanna Parravicinoand has a Foreword by Robert E. Barron. It is a stunningly beautiful book that I actually keep on the bookcase in my office. I picked this title because I think that anyone with an interest in art would be proud to own this volume. Catholics and many other Christians will find that it resonates strongly with their spirituality. Some of the images are quite moving.

Well, I think that you'll agree that this is more than enough for now. The day awaits. I can't believe how many things I have cut from the schedule (such as going to the gym) and it still looks like a killer day. For good or bad, I have a long list of topics sitting on my desk for tomorrow's post. As my parting thought, if you read this blog - PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE leave a comment. I'd love to know that someone has seen it.

Peace,

P. Del Ricci