Today’s Quick Takes come to you from a remote hideaway somewhere in Packer Country where it is currently snowing. Ho ho ho. Being “up here,” as the locals would say, also brings about the opportunity to attend Mass at Holy Hill, a national basilica and shrine. (Take a virtual pilgrimage.) No matter the weather, it’s always a treat to sneak in a visit there.
It seems the civil engineers in the entire state of Wisconsin all attended the “For Love of Traffic Circles” annual conference. They are all over the place up here. Take no offense ‘Sconie family and friends — the Iowa engineers must have attended that same conference. Traffic circles have popped up all over the Des Moines metro area lately, too. From my time in city management, I can tell you traffic circles are, in theory, excellent traffic calming/management tools, but they don’t always work as prevailing wisdom would have us believe. Why? Humans. Human drivers to be precise. I won’t go so far to say stupid drivers, but generally speaking we Americans, at least Midwesterners, have a difficult time knowing how to properly navigate through them. Lots of honking horns and confused faces … and fingers flying and R-rated expressions. Let’s remove the near occasion of sin for drivers who find themselves in these babies from time to time.
Public service announcement #345 from The Practicing Catholic: How to drive a traffic circle.
Image credit: www.wsdot.wa.gov/safety/roundabouts/
If that is too confusing, simply remember this: Yield to the left and stay in your lane!
And if that doesn’t work, should we petition the Vatican to name a patron of traffic circles?
This week I did yet another thing I swore I would never do when I had kids. I took my daughter to Disney on Ice. But I didn’t just take her, I encouraged her to dress up as a princess, tiara and all. I must admit, it was pretty darned fun, and we both had a great time.
Now that Disney on Ice has come and gone for us, not quite sure what I’ll dangle over her head in my terrible attempts at parenting her into obedience. At one point last week I said, “I will give your tickets away to another little girl if you don’t start behaving.”
To which my social sanguine daughter replied, “Mom, what’s that little girl’s name?”
Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner. The winner of our “Bring Peace to Your Home” Advent giveaway was Melanie, from The Rosary Chick fame. Congrats, Melanie! And thanks to all who entered. It was great to see new visitors to our site.
We are hosting another giveaway next week, and this time the prizes are centered around Advent and kids. That’s all I’ll share for now, mostly because I need to confirm details of the giveaway! But I promise it’ll be great. Please do check back on Tuesday. Please?
Quick reminder that Lisa Hendey, America’s favorite “CatholicMom,” will be our special guest on Catholic Women Now next week. Iowa Catholic Radio’s executive director mentioned something about me needing to tell people 10,000 times about our new show … and then tell them again another 10,000. It’s a delicate balance of promoting without bombarding, I suppose. I’ll do my best.
At any rate, tune in, would ya? Co-host Julie Nelson and I will interview Lisa at 9:00am central on Monday, November 26. The show rebroadcasts throughout the week. Look up and over to the right and you’ll see a “listen live” button. Click on that and you’ll be streaming Iowa Catholic Radio in a matter of seconds.
Here’s to a happy Feast of Christ the King. Check out our Catholicism 101: The History of Christ the King post to learn how it all began.
For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!
Last updated by at .
November 23rd, 2012 
I checked out your virtual pilgrimage and it’s totally going on my bucket list.
#4 made me laugh.
They’ve been sending out instructions like yours about the traffic circles in the utility bills in Johnston because there is as least one there now. Hope it helps.