This dust is making me crazy!

A paraphrase of a "Seinfeld" bit---"these pretzels are making me thirsty", I am experiencing dust problems again, mostly on my laptop. It looks as though it has never seen a dust cloth or been cleaned while I wipe it off daily, sometimes more than once because the sun makes the dust and such show up so much more. One cool aspect of dusting it off, wiping across it, is that sometimes the text gets much larger as a result of the wiping process. Accidentally, but cool nonetheless!

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Last evening four of us ladies met at Waters Restaurant on Kingsley Ave., near the hospital to taste the northern and southern cooking. I had meatloaf, mac 'n cheese and applesauce (because they were out of baked beans!), thinking I had mashed potatoes coming with the meatloaf. Nope, my mistake. Twila and Jean had the corned beef and cabbage while Judy J. had some sort of dish called the Chuckwagon. Some of the things could have been nicer, or better, but I was pleased with my meal. Twila's corn cob still seemed frozen so she had to wait for a replacement, which the waitress declared, "He had a hard time finding one, but it's coming....", making us wonder what THAT meant. I will try it again, certainly it takes some working in for a new place. The owner was standing at the street with a sign saying "OPEN" when we left. Being near the hospital, it should do decent business and I pray that happens for them.

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Ooops, my TV station just went away. I believe Comcast is still working out the bugs in this conversion thing. When I got home from church last night I was going to watch "Selling New York" but HGTV came up with a message across the screen saying they have detected an interruption in service with a toll-free number to call. I did not do that, choosing to sulk instead. I am not sure my calling would have resolved anything because the cable is paid for by the Association and not me personally. Now all the channels have the same message on the screen, and just in time to turn off TV and switch to Neal Boortz instead! Perfect timing!

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Ah, it has been a week of tragedies in north Florida, not the least being the drowning death of a two-year old girl who sneaked out of the house during her supposed nap. Another child was shot in a car when a bank robber tried to carjack them at a Wendy's drive-through, wounding the mom in the foot and the 2 year-old critically in the face and chest. He is still alive, stable, but in critical condition. Earlier this week a mom's foot slipped while she was reaching for something and the car flew forward into a retention pond over on Youngerman Circle, not far from church. Bystanders dived into the water to help pull the mom and her 8 year-old out of the car, with the child still in critical condition. A toddler somehow crawled out of his yard and into the road and was run over by a hit/run driver in Putnam County, another child hit by a bus at Disney and killed............Oh, my heart!

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I got to be a bit uplifted yesterday in visiting my lady friends at Great Hang Ups. A client came in who was cool and charming for a 65 year-old man. He had brought some vases in for them to sell, but they were unsold, so he is going to give them to a woman he is wooing. He spoke fluent Italian, went to school in Florence and is going back to Italy next week. Involved in every aspect, it seems, of the arts including doing voice-over work in Los Angeles. Every breath of this guy was interesting, including his attire---Panama hat color coordinated to his shorts outfit, long braided hair and he wore shades. Yes, he was a man of color who spoke warmly of his grandmother, who spit in a cuspidor as she instructed him in the ways of the world. What a wild ride he was!

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Since we are soon celebrating the 10th anniversary of our preschool, I took a piece in to Hang Ups for framing. The poster-sized piece includes the handprints of the children from the first class at Precious Lambs, including one from a child gone home to heaven. These copies were originally made for me in Green Bay where I took them to a blueprint shop to be copied. I cannot remember why I took it along up there with me, but it all worked out. I wanted to make sure the parents of the students got a copy but am not sure if I did that or not. After I got the copies made, I had Hang Ups mount and shrink wrap the original art work. I have no idea what became of it, since I have not seen it posted in the classroom either before or after they moved. The copy I took in yesterday will be matted and framed in a coordinating-style frame to work well with the other art pieces hung in the hallways of the classroom building. The first director/teacher, Rebecca, and her family are planning to come down for this celebration of 10 years of feeding the lambs!

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Once I left Great Hang Ups, I headed to Publix to do my initial shopping. Julia gave me a recipe for sweet potato casserole using Peeps on top instead of mini-marshmallows. Justin's friend LOVES Peeps so I hope that works! Now I have three more guests coming so therefore I will go back and get some more casserole in a can to make a larger batch. After I got home from shopping, I realized I missed getting the mac 'n cheese Justin requested plus the laundry soap badly needed here. I can go today as nothing is pressing except for Justin coming to clean plus church later tonight. I am so happy because now the table will be full!

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Now that the mailings and such are done, my attention should be turned toward the desk and its piles of papers begging to be filed. Tuesday when I was in the church office, the preschool teacher, Deb, came in to make copies. We were talking about the mess on our desks, etc. getting ready for taxes and such. I mentioned how when the aforementioned Rebecca worked for our home building business, her favorite task was filing! No one likes that! Except Rebecca, it seems. Piles of church paperwork, unopened mail, periodicals, quarterly reports....all waiting to be put in a final, or near final, resting place. Perhaps today.

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Justin prefers to work from a list, even if the list says to vacuum the hard and carpeted floors, which stands to reason. So, therefore, I will be going to the 'other' computer to produce a detailed list of things needing his attention before Sunday. It is so past time for the snowman to come in, since we have temps in the 80's at long last, the same temperature it was in northern IL yesterday!!! My friend, Judy R., told me the snow has been gone from her home in MN for about two weeks and tulips planted in their lawn by her granddaughter are starting to push through. How pretty that will be when they make it free of the earth!

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My people in WI will have a breakfast at church at FG on Easter morning and I heard murmurings of them having a cook-out for their Easter lunch. My sister, Lori, and her family are coming over from Holmen, plus my other sister, Kerry, is planning to come from Oshkosh. The apartment building where Mom and Jill live has a picnic area complete with a grille so I can see this happening very nicely. Hopefully Lisa and family can make it, too, as surely Lisa won't have to work on Easter!

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Our worship last night for Maundy Thursday was very nice, the solemn hymns, the readings about the first Passover and the Passover meal where Jesus instituted His holy supper, the stripping of the altar, the tears. Even Fausto could be seen wiping his eyes so it is not only the women who are moved by this 'ritual'. The lights were dimmed in the sanctuary as the ladies, led by the acolyte, move into the altar area to remove the items. He carried the yet lit Christ candle down the aisle, followed then by the women carrying the candles, communion ware, as others folded and placed the linens across the arms of another. The final item removed, after Pastor took off his shawl, was for him to carry the brass cross down the aisle behind the ladies, leaving the area stark and bare. We left in silence after a moment of meditation, so moving, as Suzanne and Kathy B. played "Were You There?" softly in the background....