tidings of magpies

I have nothing really to say. I just wanted to share the amazing alternate title for a flock of magpies. Tidings of magpies. How much cooler is that? ("And the storm brought tidings of magpies clustering down into our oak trees.")

Also, a random fact: Last year, I posted an average of .50410958904109 times per day. (I've resolved to live up to the new shirt Avery gave me - "Math is Delicious - now with more integers!" - by using math in my every day life.)

24 days until Italy.

Latest Italian phrase: io sono americana, mas io parle un po l'italiano (non molto bene).

P.S.
Me: I'm really thirsty!
Aaron: Me too!
Me: We could be thirsty twins!
Dad [walking into the kitchen and throwing his fist in the air]: Damn the torpedoes!
Aaron: Full speed ahead!

P.P.S.
It is now 11:06 p.m., and I have had an epiphany. You know what drives me nuts about praying "heal so-and-so if it is your will Lord," or "heal this marriage if it is your will Lord"? Beyond, that is, larger questions of predestination and free will and what on earth God really wants from us - those are questions I think I will never be able to answer. And anyway, they're not practical questions, I don't think.

No, the problem is this: tacking on that little "if it is your will" seems to evince a complete disbelief in the power of prayer to make change. I mean, what's the use of praying at all if we don't think it will make any change to God's opinion or plans? What about Moses, who changed God's mind and kept him from destroying Israel? or Abraham, who prayed and convinced the Lord to save Lot? Pretty sure they didn't tack on a little wimpy "oh, if it please you sir" on the end. What ever happened to that kind of prayer?

Someone is bound to respond: but we're just seeking to emulate Jesus in the garden, when he sublimated his will ultimately to the Lord's. But I would remind you that Jesus praying the Garden of Gethsemane was not just some quick five-minute walk-in-the-park prayer.

Anyway. Think about it. It is now 11:12, and I am not certain that I will be able to sleep.