The room is a little too dark for you to see just how intensely cute my mornings are around here, but for now, this photo will have to suffice.

This is Huck! And Huck has progressed from playing with my hands to letting me pet him, so mornings around here have gotten very exciting!

Tom and Becky watched in amazement this morning as I petted Huck, and their expressions seemed to be saying, "OMG!! She's touching you!!" They seemed kind of surprised that he actually survived it.

Well, this is my last weekend before the dreaded English Comp 2 gets underway at school. I'm guessing that I'm going to get ridiculously busy starting next week, but after English Comp 2 is over, all of my classes for the rest of 2013 will be pertaining to my major (pastoral ministry), so I'm psyched about that.

In addition to what I study in school, I also study other topics related to my major in my "free" time. During November and December, I studied the writings of St. Paul, and the lives of  St. Francis and St. Clare of Assisi and I fell in love with all of them. (I am eager to one day go to Italy and visit all of their churches -- meaning the churches where their relics are contained.) So, in addition to English Comp 2 this month, I will begin tackling Elaine Pagels books on the Gnostic Gospels -- beginning with her book on the Gospel of Thomas (Beyond Belief) (Thomas's gospel is an absolute favorite of mine. The Gospel of Thomas documents what Jesus taught during the 40 days he spent with his disciples after his Resurrection but before the Ascension. It was deemed heretical at the Nicene Council and so was not included in the New Testament Canon. In fact, it was only recently re-discovered in the 1940s, when it was unearthed in Nag Hammadi, Egypt, with the other heretical Gnostic writings.) I will be following Beyond Belief with Pagels' book about the Gnostics' take on St. Paul, then the Gospel of Judas.

Yes, I know. When I am finally ordained by my church, they will likely have a lot of bones to pick with me. (Hopefully not relics, ha ha.)

During my break from school, I have been developing another TV screenwriting project. I had hoped to get it done before school started again, but it turns out that my topic utterly fascinates me and just naturally led to tons of research that ate up every last bit of my spare time. And I am nowhere near getting anything down in writing, other than my 30 pages of notes...And, yes, I am also working with a new writing partner -- a writer in Brooklyn. We're developing a modern day re-telling of one of Hans Christan Andersen's fairytales. And, yes, I told him it was going to be really hard to get my complete attention, but he insisted so we are squeezing it in. I am Skyping an awful lot these days...

Tomorrow morning at 6 AM (probably looking just as lovely as I looked on Wednesday at that same time), I will be praying as part of my church's Kairos Prison Ministry involvement. If you have any interest in praying for prisoners, or in helping them in other ways, even by joining the special ministry program they run, check out what Kairos does. They are all over the world.

Okay, on that note, gang, I'm going to scoot. I hope Friday is good to you wherever you are and whatever you wind up doing. Ciao, babies! I love each and every one of you.