What a glorious day today!

So far, anyway. I am watching the Packers make mince meat out of the Colts, at least in the 3rd quarter they are! Anything can happen yet, to be sure. The Jags are on a 'bye week' so what a blessing to be able to watch the Packers instead. The temps here today are screaming "football" because it's windy and chilly, only 69 above zero when I came home from Green Cove Springs this afternoon.

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Last night at bedtime I decided to take a pain pill leftover from abscessed tooth days to help my aching bones, hoping it would bring instant sleep....wrong! Although I didn't ache or anything, I simply didn't drop immediately off to sleep. It was at least midnight or after before dropping off. This morning it was not easy to wake up but somehow I managed, thanks in part to the rising of the sun, to get up and out the door by 8:40 a.m. Without stopping for soda at Sonic on the way, I pulled into the parking lot right on time for Bible study.

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Once more we spent time visiting the Supplement for the hymnal, reviewing the liturgies, meditations, the new psalm tones, and Pastor even tried his hand at the organ since Robbie wasn't there to help us out. To sing the hymns, we used the CD which came with the CWS and sounded so good singing with the professionals on the "tape". We could hear the addition of finger cymbals and even clarinet in the accompaniment. Boy, I wish we had an orchestra like FG does. Mr. Menk does such a wonderful job with those kids, getting them to play and sound so good, offering much edification to the worship! Somebody up there tell him I say "thanks!", please!?! I can just hear what lovely additions the hand bells/tone chimes at Victory will make to their worship.

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With the Douglas/Langleys and Chappells gone on vacation plus our back row folks being out, we had an empty church today! I don't think any babies or little ones had to go into the nursery, either. Pastor offered a special prayer on behalf of my father-in-law, giving thanks for his successful surgery and for strength to recover quickly. A dear member and friend, Ethel, is having heart surgery tomorrow, hopefully not too invasive or grueling for her. She is such a vital cog in our church machinery and a sweetheart to boot, so we pray that she'll come through with flying colors and get back to us quickly.

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As I was greeting at the door after church, someone brought to my attention a "stranger" coming toward me from the parking lot....JUSTIN! Sporting his Packer T-shirt and short hair, he drew quite a crowd, folks were so happy to see him, and told him so. He was a bit confused, again, about our dinner plans so came to church to meet me. It surprised me so that I got tears in my eyes---really? I was ripe for tears anyway, as I was 'greeting' Ethel and wishing her well tomorrow. After the crowds thinned, we compared notes and he figured out that I was spending time with Julia both days, which is what messed him up. He asked, "Is this going to interfere with your time for Julia now?" and I told him it would be okay for me to have lunch with him first since he came all this way over here to do so. He should have known Carrabba's isn't open at lunch time and admits he goofed----just as I did on Thursday when I stood him up at Panera Bread! He chose Clark's for lunch so off we went.

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No wait for an outdoor table today, although it was too chilly to be eating out there. It might have been okay in the sun but we weren't in the sun and got hit by the 'cold' wind, even Justin said it was cold. Our pickles were perfection, the best I ever had there, almost as crisp as potato chips! We ate only half the basketful because I didn't want to totally ruin my lunch. Always having the fish fingers, formerly known as grouper fingers, I managed to eat all of them, 5 or 6, and shared my fries with the fish and turtles. Neither of us eat the hush puppies so tossed them into the water, too. As we came along the path from the parking lot, where I had 'rock star' parking today, we saw two baby alligators sunning themselves in the weeds. Justin took a picture using his phone so we'll see if it shows up. Cool! Justin's meal was Minorcan pasta with crab meat and shrimp, and he licked up every bit of it.

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Oh, oh, what happened to the Packer game? CBS just switched to another football game before the Packer game was completed!!! I don't want to hear the ruckus in other people's family rooms right now.....I can't believe they'd do this, is it because the Packers were so far ahead??? It's a Jets game featuring some guy named Favre....sorry, Dolly, I had to say it!

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So, back to the afternoon's events: leaving Clark's and heading for Green Cove Springs, I called Mom to gloat about eating there and to find out about Bryson's birthday party yesterday. They had a good time and met some nice people from Hannah's side of the family. Due to Alayna's work schedule she wasn't able to join in the fun, sadly. It's three hours each way so the family spent many hours on the road Saturday. I stopped at Sonic and got my Happy Hour diet Coke for taking to the gallery with me. There were several trucks and cars parked at Donna's when I arrived so had to park a bit down the street. I was glad to see that folks had showed up and even more glad to hear Julia had sold a couple pieces before I arrived!

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Donna is going to offer classes in her studio so I signed up to give it a try. Maybe, just maybe, Martie will take a class or two, although she's been awfully hard to pin down these days. We'd planned to take classes with one of her former teachers starting in October but it fell through the cracks, for a number of reasons. I wasn't overly excited to drive to Mandarin on Mondays for the classes since I already have pretty full days on Monday already. Maybe Donna's classes will work out better. Donna has been briefed by my dear friends, Julia and Dee, about my inimitable style (ahem, ahem) of painting and she thinks she can work with it! More power to her! I simply cannot allow the teachers to rob me of my fun, or my joy! It was so much more fun to paint before I knew what I was doing!!!

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When I got home again, and started to watch the football game, I made the finishing touches, I hope, on a document needed for the Owners' meeting tomorrow night at The Club. Tracy asked me to take a document used for the Board and re-write it for the Owners. I did it, managed to get it down to three pages, hopefully without losing her sentiment and message. Justin teased me, saying "you are just so busy" between the recent church stuff, Art Guild, and now the Board of Directors stuff. He said, "You got off of one Board and onto another!" I don't mind doing the word jobs, especially the newsletters.