First stance taken by the new pope.

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Benedict XVI warned in his first encyclical Wednesday that sex without unconditional love risked turning men and women into merchandise.

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Chicago

i'm in Chicago right now visiting Kelly. Lindsey and I drove down last night. The drive itself was an adventure with seven inches of snow falling over a period of four or five hours. We were driving through 3-4 inches of standing snow on the interstate at 35 mph. Hence it took us almost twice as long ~11 hours to get here. Today, however, the temperatures were decently above freezing and most of the snow is already gone. Kelly and I went to the Water Tower and the Hancock building. Tonight we are attending a house party and then going to see the Sports Comedy Improv troup at midnight.

Quotes

A friend of mine sent me the following quotes (my initial thoughts in
() ):

1. Nobody is perfect, until you fall in love with them. (how true!)

2. The hardest thing to do is watch the one you love, love someone
else (?!?!)

3. Don't cry over someone who isn't crying over you. (k... easier
said then done)

4. Everything is okay in end. If it's not okay, then it's not the
end. (naively optimistic)

I wasn't sure if those were suppose to make me feel better or
worse?? I suppose, if read in that order, they offer some positive
reassurance. Cliches are a dime a dozen when the rose colored lenses
fall off.

New Years Eve

New Years Eve
Originally uploaded by jrossjr.

We watched the fireworks show from a hilltop Church in a large park in Stockholm. Click on the picture to see a movie clip!

New Years Resolutions

To my knowledge, this is my first New Year's resolution of my life. So, I will make it nice and easy:

I 'resolve' to make 2006 better than 2005

What are your resolutions?

Sweden

Today is our last full day in Sweden (Adam, Scott, James and I), and the first time that we've had internet access. In checking my email, I found that I missed a credit card payment, have a million ebay questions/complaints to address, and have a pile of work waiting for me up at Tech. Instantly, all of the daily burdens that i've shed since break started landed back on my shoulders. I forgot how nice it was to be without worries. Oh well, for the next two days, I will do my best to ignore all of my problems since I can't possibly do anything about them right now anyway :)

New Years Eve here was amazing. Easily the best of my life. We were standing high in the air at a Church perched on the top of a hill in a park in central Stockholm. Fireworks were going off all around us on the church grounds as well as over the whole horizon. 360 degrees of lights and explosion for almost an hour with champaign to boot. Not a bad night overall. Pictures to come. Tonight we are going out on the town. Our first chance to experience the night life in Stockholm through local bars and dance clubs.

Two days ago we woke up at 9am and went to bed at 10am the next morning (25 hours). Yesterday we woke up at 6pm and went to bed at 2am (8 hours). Much of our vacation has been in entire desregard of scedules, clocks or any other patterns that might inhibit our desired activities. It's been great, with more card playing than you could shake a stick at. Where did that phrase originate??