No, the word patron is neuter and completely different in meaning from matron.
In Spanish we have both “matrona” meaning a Woman In Charge (head nurses and midwives are called matronas in some places) and patrón/patrona, meaning master/mistress or in the religious sense protector.
So female saints are patron saints as well?
Santa Maria, Patron Saint of Los Angeles… hrm
Morn! Humpty Hump day. (Uh-huh-huh, a-do the Humpty Hump) I’m caffeinating nicely, even if the weather is windy enough to make this -9 (Canajin degrees) feel much colder. It’ll warm up from here 'til Friday though so I’ll deal with it.
Got my vacation schedule approved – or at least no one in the office has complained that I’m off at the same time they are, so this is good. 7 weeks 'til my first week of vacation! Woohoo!
I bought a Brioche bun this morning. I’m not entirely sure what one is, other than it being a sweet Italian bun of some sort, but I’m going to find out. I like trying new and interesting things. I’m allowed to cheat on my diet today because my lunch will be an awesome garden salad with some pretty tasty dressing that goes great with the peperonccini peppers.
Swampy - LiLi’s got the Dope on sleet vs. freezing rain. I hate ‘em both, but given the choice I’d prefer the freezing rain. Sleet trickling down your back and under your coat sucks. Not even a coat of bacon grease from fryin’ it up nekkid helps. (Oh, you like it, admit it. :D)
Wise Rodent - Did St. Bernard (the saint) also carry a cask of brandy around with him wherever he went?
Bobbio - So how was EMT class? Just the rank basics so far? And what’s the difference between “imagining” and “picturing?” Intent?
rosie - Congrats on the resurrected iPod! I lost my playlists and the contents of my iPod completely once. (THe music was there, it just couldn’t see any of it) Never figured out why, and I had to spend several hours on a Sunday night redoing everything. That was not fun. That was grr.
The Wikipedia says that the dogs doing so is an urban legend. It didn’t say anything about the man in that regard, but I’m guessing not.
I’m not sure I’ve ever met a St. Bernard, thinking about it. I can say that Great Danes are really friendly.
I think carrying around a lot of brandy is a wise thing to do. Just in case. Or maybe margaritas, or a whole lot of wine. We’ve talked about getting vodka and whisky taps installed under the front counter at work. They’d make work a lot more fun.
Someone motivate me to do housework.
Santa María (Reina) de los Ángeles, patron saint of the Mission and later city of the same name 
It’s one of the images from the Rosary Litanies (sp?): Queen of Angels, pray for us.
Look at my list of patrons: I have three copies of her! Mother of Light, Wayfinder among the Snows and Protector of the Students. All these “versions” of Mary are more of a hit with Hispanics than with other people (although I see that Our Lady of Perpetual Help is the patron saint of New Zealand), people here can get ridiculously worked up over which statue is more miraculous.
Check out Paul Miki, Sage One. A murderer who ended up being a martyred saint.
Good morning! We have a winter weather advisory for tomorrow. I hope we don’t have a repeat of Jan 20, 2005, when 1/4" of ice caused the city to grind to a halt, and made us the laughing stock of the U.S. I am going to watch the Canes practice, because that is the only hockey I’m gonna get for the next two weeks. 
I was born on the feast of St. Scholastica, virgin(which kinda explains my love life), and was named after St Christopher, the downgraded Saint.
Nava, nekkid is always unsafe. Naked is not wearing any clothes, nekkid is not wearing any clothes, and about to do something. 
LiLi, got any openings at work?
bobbio, when you finish classes, you can be the Official MMP Medic.
On the whole, St. Bernards are among those big dogs that can best be summed up as “gregarious.” Think Dom DeLuise (or Paul Prudhomme, if you prefer) with a lot more fur.
When my father and I shared a townhouse with friends of ours they had a Newfoundland Dog, which I’m certain is the spiritual northern brother of the St. Bernard. She was a big, lovable pooch that probably could have given small children rides around the neighbourhood. Like the St. Bernard, Newfie dogs were also working dogs, and neither would they have looked out of place with a cask of brandy around their necks.
Speaking of which, where did that folk tale come from anyway?
EDIT: Never mind, it appears to be from a painting. Which makes me wonder where the artist got the idea from…
I was named after my mother’s parish priest.
Yeah, kind of raised my eyebrows too when I learned that.
:dubious:
As long as you look like your father, instead of your Father, it’s all good.
Brainpasture, I saw a Newfie towing a wagon full of kids around the greenway last summer.
But were you expected to call him Father, or Uncle? Cos if it’s the second, Momma’s got some overdue explainin’.
On further news from yesterday:
SiL’s Dad, who has ALS and has been in the hospital since before Christmas with his wife spending there pretty much 24/7 (thus leading The Nephew to wonder where the hell half his adults had gone), is getting released from the hospital today. He’s still taking antibiotics (whatever infection he got refuses to die) but the hospital simply couldn’t keep him any longer.
The town’s public daycare called to say The Nephew can join starting next month, but it would be mornings. SiL said no, it’s got to be afternoons. The woman from the center told her they don’t have an afternoon shift this year and to please do the paperwork for next year and state that she needs an afternoon shift and why: they know one is needed, but unless people actually start stating it in writing, it’s not going to happen. Daycare is very much needed, both because of the situation with the grandfather, because of my own Mom’s slowpoke walk (she just can’t handle a running kid out in the street) and because the kid was spending all his time with grown-ups: he’s very adept at twirling adults around his little fingers but has no idea how to behave with midgets his own size/age. Well, age: for size, he’s wearing 3yo already. Mom says she’s been saying they should call the local rugby club already.
The Nephew’s scheduled for urether surgery next month. SiL wanted to wait until some exams she’s got coming, but those exams are government stuff that may or may not take place in the next 3 years, so you know, waiting until the kid’s in 1st grade seemed like a bit much. He’s going to start daycare after the surgery, in a private one that’s just down the street from Mom’s.
SiL’s Mom’s Mom has very severe Alzheimer’s. For the last 15 years, she’d been rotated through her three daughter’s houses, monthly stays. She just sits on an armchair and doesn’t do anything unless someone tells her to. She doesn’t even complain that she needs changing unless you ask her. For this last year, she’s been with one daughter; another’s husband has ALS and the third’s husband had another degenerative disease that took him in 14 months, he died last November.
The flat where this woman nominally lives was bought by her four children: the three daughters, and the son… who did all the paperwork in his own name and is now suing to officially evict her and be able to sell the house (the money to pay for it was equal parts). Who needs movie of the week when you have reality.
Bibs already has that gig.
ME stopped by! Yay!
I don’t know about menthol in tea though. Sounds a little… ick to me.
Sorry about all the family drama Nava. (Don’t we have a nickname for you??) Is it better that you’re in Switzerland and too far away to be too involved or do you wish you were there to help in one way or another?
It’s getting cold here. 2 degrees this morning and -10 degrees (all Amurrikan degrees) predicted for tomorrow morning. Brrrrrrr.
I’m going out to lunch with a bunch of coworkers today. It feels kinda weird to be doing stuff with my coworkers. I’ve always been the youngest of the bunch in the past so I never hung out with anyone from work. It’s cool having other 20-somethings around to do stuff with. It does seem a little strange though. Like besides work, what do you talk about?
Imagining means the possibility popped into my head, without the visual.
Muuuuuch better here! Muuuuuuch better!
Being this far means that:
to you), Lilbro likes to hear it but doesn’t think of asking if he sees me often. This leads to some highly-lopsided conversations. Oh: SiL, her brother and my brother got terribly jealous a couple times that SiL’s Bro’s gf and me started shooting the breeze :smack: Our jobs both involve a lot of traveling and a lot of organizational analysis, we just click. But the rest of the room was angry that we understood each other without having to dumb down the explanations.Specially since yesterday I finally was able to get references for some medical insurance. I feel safer already and I don’t even have the papers yet
No, I didn’t get the info from anybody who’s being paid to give it to me. Last year, there was a thread here, open by a sock puppet, asking whether many Dopers belong to a certain international foodie club (don’t believe the propaganda, it’s all about the eating) named after these flat-topped pieces of furniture normally used to deposit platters of food. Noticing that there were quite a few members here, I decided to give the test a try and see about signing up. I figured, if “dope = lots of people I like” and “dope = lots of members of this association”, maybe “this association = lots of people I like”. I passed, signed up.
I asked their local “delegate” (whom I still haven’t met) to give me a couple names of reputable companies please pretty please. Turns out he’s in charge of the legal and financial stuff for a local IT consulting firm - so he could give me a lot more than a couple names! I’ve been looking at the webpages he provided and have to call the broker he recommended.
I was an EMT, long ago. I let my certification lapse because they didn’t offer any recertification classes in the evening! I worked fulltime (as a reporter) and couldn’t take the class during the day. Grr. So anyway, all that work for only two years of being able to volunteer. For years I thought I’d retake the class, but Life has kept intervening and I never did. It would be nice though; it seems medical situations are always arising before me (unconscious teen on interestate back-up; diabetic woman with dangerously low blood sugar in Wal-Mart, to name a couple).
Today I armed myself with my Lands End down parka, and long giant sweater. I am DETERMINED not to be cold. Determined. When is spring, again?
swampy my husband is headed your way; his father is having surgery in Atlanta. Make sure the weather’s clear, OK?
My mom named me after Mary’s mother Anne (my baptism name; I never use it) who is the patron saint of grandparents and expectant mothers.
:eek: Wow. Just wow. I can’t even contemplate the backwards figure eights with undulation.
So yesterday a bunch of us participated at my university’s trivia pub night. We came in 4th, unfortunately - no dice. We’ve vowed to try again next week.
When we left the pub (which gets no cell phone reception) I discovered that Mr. It-never-happened called and left a voicemail that amounted to: “Call me back.” It was 1am and I was drunk so I decided not to (never drink and dial, folks).
I have class with him today. We’ll see how this goes.
Very wise decisions, Haze! I have a friend who has a reputation for getting drunk and calling/texting her ex. It got to the point last time we were away for the weekend, we had to take her phone away from her and hide it. It was much easier than trying to prise the wine bottle out of her hands.
You know what the really fun bit is? It’s released backwards figure eights with undulation, and we were alternating them with… have you done elephant walk? It’s a forward half circle, tuck pelvis, and then half circle the other way. We were supposed to add undulations instead of tucking. My stomach muscles are refusing to speak to me. They’re all confused and unhappy.
How the hell do you do that? Anyay, it was damn confusing.
Yes, I am avoiding finishing the cleaning.
Ellen, hubby may be in Etlanner during sleet/freezing rain tomorrow and/or Friday. Since nobody knows how to deal with it, I hope he doesn’t have to do any driving if’n it happens. Them Etlanner drivers are crazy on their good days. Heaven forbid dealin’ with 'em in icy conditions. :eek:
I am taking a break from looking at excel spreadsheets. Someway, somehow, somebody has managed to do sump’n to make all the formulas drop/disappear/go byebye in each and every freakin’ one of those spreadsheets. GRRRRRR… I don’t even know who to be mad at, or even if there’s anybody to be mad at. I mean, I do know that sometimes this appears to happen for no apparent reason other than some kind of excel gremlin. I hate doin’ this! It’s booooorrrrrrrriiiiiiinnnnnng!!!