"In the end, we're all fruit"

Can you guess what I just watched, with my ears, on TV? Yup, "My Big, Fat Greek Wedding"! For some reason, that movie never gets old for me.

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I just hung up from chatting with Cliff and we both came to the conclusion to use the Fellowship Hall vs. the new classroom building for the Ladies' Advent Service. It was quite iffy whether or not we'd even have temporary electric power back there and no heat, and heaven knows I need my heat! We'll simply use the Fellowship Hall and pray we get everything cleaned up properly for preschool the next morning. If we are packed together a bit, that means we had a great turnout, right?

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We also had to discuss some of the selections for the construction concerning the floor coverings and such. One of the older ladies, Fran, told me today that she was just soooo happy about the amount of painting they got done on Saturday. And then she has the nerve to thank ME for my work!!!!! Oh please...............

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Justin came to Good Shepherd today to hear our songs and worship with us. The first hymn was "Jerusalem, the Golden" and I went to sit down next to him while it was sung, because I was afraid I'd throw the musicians off if I stood back at my podium to sing, and weep. I did just great through the first stanza but cracked up a bit part way through the second:..."Forever and forever are clad in robes of white. Jesus, in mercy bring us to that dear land of rest where sings the host of heaven your glorious name to bless." I can just visualize those gone home before us enjoying the blessed feast and singing hymns of praise unending, ever in the presence of our Lord.....wow!

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The congregation also sang "In Christ Alone", and I could hear Kathy and Brian singing in harmony from behind us. I can't say if Justin heard it or not because it would have been coming on his left side, the deaf ear side. (I just realized that I had tears dripping onto my shirt from my previous paragraph yet!) I leaned over and told Justin to add this one to my funeral hymn list and he said, "I already did", as I told him this about 100 times before. Lynn, my sister, said today that she heard it this morning on one of the area radio stations, and has also listened to it on youtube. I told her about Pete's website so she can hear the "new" tune for "Jerusalem......" so hope she finds it tomorrow when she is at her computer. She's not heard it yet, the Thaxted melody.

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Garnet was in church again today so I 'tracked' her down and told about being at the dog track on Thursday and how I wagered on her dog. She said they'd been sick, some kind of kennel illness, and weren't at the top of their game recently, but hey, the dog I bet on won so it's great! I encouraged her to attend some of the upcoming social and devotional events and she said she'd try. I hope she does find the time to come at least to the Ladies' Advent Service Sunday night. Wow, that came up quickly, didn't it?

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Following worship, another of our members came up to me, a man who is, much of the time, on the shut-in list, and asked if I was "Kim". Now, we've already established this more than once but, knowing his poor health, I just went along. I said I was Kim, thinking he was going to say something about my sitting behind him and singing, which is what he usually thanks me for. But this time, he told me how much he enjoys the newsletter that I send out, "Keeping the Faith" for those members away from the congregation for whatever reason. He says he likes to see the pictures I include. I was on a roll today, let me tell you!!!

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The ladies who have agreed to play the keyboard and flute for the Ladies' Service met with me after church to decide who would play what, a process that went quite quickly. I am absolutely delighted that one young lady, the flutist, is going to contribute for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that her playing will so enhance our worship. Sadly, our wonderful viola player will not able to attend as she is going camping over the ThanksLiving long weekend and couldn't promise she'd be back in time. I'm sad, not only because she can't play but also because she can't be with us. Sigh.........

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Justin and I will be pleased to have our "old" friends, Wendy, Jonathan (who goes by the name Jon now) and Joshua at our festive table on Thursday. We also asked this other lady and her son to join us but she'd already accepted another invitation from someone in her son's class, otherwise she'd have loved to come. Brian and Kathy asked what we were doing for lunch today and I said we were coming home for chili and football......................so guess what! They came over and enjoyed chili, rolls, and lousy football with us until they just couldn't stand to watch another minute and went home! Ohhh, the Jaguars stunk today, it was almost sickening. Lynn called about 20 seconds into the game to see if we were watching because it was going all wrong in the first two plays of the game!!!! But, we loved sharing our lunch with them anyway, makes up for lousy football!

I'm such a dunce sometimes

Yes, only sometimes! In re-reading my posting from Friday, I see I failed to mention what exactly I did that was "creative", other than listening to "Seinfeld". After spending an hour and a half on the phone with a long lost friend, I had to rush right out the door, with no make-up on, to attend an Open House at the home of Lisa, the Creative Memories lady. I found her home with no difficulty, talking to my renewed acquaintance all the way there, and trying to apply eye make-up and blusher as I sat in Lisa's driveway. Finally my friend had to go as she was seeing a Thanksgiving program at Josh's school, perfect timing for me to go in for my "appointment" with Lisa.

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Lisa showed me the wonderful things that CM has come out with this season, including a digital book she made about her father, in celebration of his 80th birthday. It looked so profession and was quite the tribute to her dad. Something to think about, that's for sure. I picked up a few things for my new best friend, Chrissie, as she is just starting out and needs some basic "tools" of the craft, as it were. I'd hate for her to go buy things on her own and end up with stuff she doesn't even need, like I did in my flurry of purchasing years ago. I also came away with some little gifts just for showing up, some tickets in for the "big" drawing she's having, plus a "make and take" item to work on when there. I passed on that, since I talked too much and rolled into the next person's appointment. Had a cup of hot cider and a sugar cookie, though, and great conversation, and came away with lovely parting gifts. Creativity comes in all shapes and sizes!

The smell of smoke fills my room

My room and laundry room smell of smoke, bonfire smoke, after my wonderful evening spent at the beach with the Olson's last night. I don't care how large a bonfire they could have built, it wouldn't have been enough to keep us warm. Even with blankets on, we were freezing. Hot embers landing on our feet didn't even help. But, I wouldn't have missed it for the world!!!!

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The fingers of my red leather gloves are quite sticky from the s'mores we enjoyed and the tips a bit blackened from my reaching into the fire to move logs around to stimulate more heat. I might need to put red leather gloves on my CHRISTmas list if I can't get the blackness off of them. The marshmallow will most likely lick off! Fred, the firemaster from Linda's condo building, has been forced to use the more"accepted" fire pit, rather than the sawed in half water heater used last year for the bonfire. It was warmer, then, too, because of it being held in late April instead of mid-November, where we had a low temperature overnight of 30 degrees above zero.

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Justin's move began and was over in less than two hours, costing more than I expected, but.........at least it's done with. I couldn't imagine those guys trying to move his large dresser or 50" TV in their cars or S-10 pick up, nope, wouldn't be a good thing to see or experience. His platform bed with all the drawers underneath. I can't even imagine the mess they have, at both places. The most odd thing was, that with all the confusion and such, neither of the other two guys in the quad even poked their noses out of their rooms to see what was going on. What is that about? I asked Justin if they were actually alive, and he said he could hear video games being played which really fills me with great joy and delight. Oh great! He was going to be dropping off my donations at the Yard Sale at Victory after the move was completed. As I thought about it, I did the thing we hated the most about the yard sale---my donations were unpriced!!!!!!

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Justin is also coming over tomorrow to go to church with me, because our congregation is singing both "In Christ Alone" and "Jerusalem, the Golden", the second of which will be accompanied by organ played by Kathy B.; viola by Suzanne; and Robbie on trumpet. He had to regain "his lip" just to play this hymn, and I think he got it! After worship Justin is coming over here to watch the football game and eat chili. He asked me to make some of my famous chili complete with beer added, and also asked me to get some sour cream for him to add to his. This is something he tried at Jesse's dad's house and loved it, so I'll get him some sour cream.

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I've been invited to dinner down at Chardonnay's tonight, having some sort of fancy beef roast she picked up at the Fresh Market. Four of us are having dinner together, with me being responsible for the dessert, of course. As soon as the call came in from Sharon, my mind immediately went to what to bring for dessert so when she asked me to bring dessert, I was so ready! We are also going to try our hand at Mexican dominoes, a game I'd played at church on game night awhile back. Justin said it sounds like something "old people" do, and I had no argument against that. At least it isn't maj jong! A visit to the store is pending as I need to get my pie plus a few things for our lunch tomorrow. It's just tooooooooo cold to go outside, only 47 degrees right now and windy!

A creative day all around

I am listening to creativity as I write, such a day! The episode of "you know who" is quite creative, where Jerry and George are having a terrible time trying to put together three sentences to present to NBC for the pilot, and they are hungry for an idea. They make me laugh, those two guys, actually all four of them. "Finally! My stupidity pays off!!!!" "Everytime I think I'm out, they pull me back in!" There are three sailboats, almost equally spaced, dancing along on the river as the sun is getting ready to set. I should be getting ready for my evening trip to St. Augustine for the pre-Thanksgiving gathering with the Olson's at their beach house, culminating with a bonfire on the beach behind the condo. Can't wait but, as Lisa told me last night, I must go regardless of the "chill in the air"....

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Justin stopped by to pick up some donations to Victory's Yard Sale tomorrow. They got rained out last week and have to try again this week. I didn't take a single thing to Good Shepherd's sale but, to Victory's, yes! Justin is moving tomorrow, too, so it's a busy day on Kernan Blvd. When he called me this afternoon, he asked me if I was coming over to "run the move" or if he was going to do it, I told him he could run the show. I have sent my credit card info to the movers to avoid having to give my credit card to Justin and risk having it fall into the wrong hands or have some other evil befall it. It is so much safer to have it floating through the Internet for all the world to see than to let Justin pack it safely into his wallet!!!!

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Time for me to head out for St. Augustine so must begin the layering process. Have a blessed evening all, as will I!!!!!

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A day at the races

Or rather, a night! Last night was our Palace Third Thursday social event held at the Orange Park Kennel Club. We had a room just for our group, and the dogs ran a race themed "The Palace Classic". We got our picture taken en mass in the upstairs room rather than running down stairs to do it, which worked out well as one of our group, an elderly man, was in his wheelchair. The Hostess is going to e-mail it to me for use in the newsletter. Jessica also had her camera along as a back-up to the Hostess' photo.

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With a total of 16 people showing up, those I would consider our "usuals", as in any organization, we had great fun and lots of laughs. A representative from the Club came up and instructed us on how to place wagers on the dogs, showed us the stats of each racer, and how winners are chosen, etc. I had no intention of doing any betting but as I read through the lists of Owners and Trainers, there was the name of someone from church who owns kennels and trains racers. Now, I was wagering! In my first wager, I spent $2 for the Crowe dog to win and and I won, too! $6!!! Whoooeee! In two more races she had dogs running so I could use the "proceeds" from my winnings to wager, but this time, her dogs didn't win. I had my original $2 which we used half of in placing a group bet, but that didn't work either. My last dollar went to place a bet, at the coaxing of Hugh, as he insisted I wager on a dog named "Tulin Kim". Kim didn't do too much toolin', making me at a loss of a dollar for the night.

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The whole event cost me $1 because my lovely upstairs neighbors bought my meal and drinks to thank me for the all the work I put into getting the evening publicized and such. This was totally unexpected, and Travis told me he did it because I was a "cheap date", as I only ordered an appetizer and had one adult beverage. Some of the folks had difficulties with their meal service, such as undercooked prime rib steaks or having bacon added to a salad when it was requested otherwise. The Management was appalled at such a think, therefore, comped us all free dessert! I brought that home, too, as well as Chardonnays uneaten prime rib, baked potato, and half of my appetizer feast. The onion straws I ordered were not straws at all but Jessica liked them and helped me out with them. I am quite the connoisseur when it comes to onion strings so thumbed my nose at these onion peels. I wonder if that's why we were comped the desserts?!?!?!

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Ever since Monday I've been trying to track down this young lady who came to church on Sunday and Bible study on Monday. She used to work in the church office when Pete was there, and, due to a falling out of sorts, her family sort of left the congregation. This wounded me because she had been quite supportive when Timmy died and afterward, and I simply adored her sons, especially little Joshua. He was the cutest little thing when he was born and when he was in the preschool, I'd always get special hugs from him, as shy as he was. They sort of disappeared for a while and now, ta da, here she is again. When I saw her come in, a bit late, Sunday, church had already begun but I went anyway to where she was seated in the back row and we hugged each other a nice long time. Good! Monday she stayed after Bible study to talk with Pastor so I didn't get a chance to speak with her then either. The search begins!!!

Perhaps I should explain.......

.......that Paul is not a soprano, but Emily certainly is!!!! Just wait----you'll see for yourselves................

The river is gorgeous tonight

The river is so smooth that I could bounce a quarter on it---well, nearly that smooth. The sun is beginning to set but the sky is still lit, as are the trees across the river. A flock of birds just flew in a line toward the south, not recognizable from this distance. When the sun hits a certain level in the sky, the roofs and windows across the river catch the light, making a reflection that is sometimes blinding. But only for a moment...

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I am listening to a "Seinfeld" episode, enjoying the banter as Jerry and George try to get through security at the airport. George got teased by the man doing the searching (pre-TSA rules) for carrying body lotion in his luggage. As Jerry is getting "wanded" by another security guy, he makes the best of it by pleading: "Ladies and gentlemen, I implore you....." and he trails off with a grin on his face. Then he and George bicker about who gets to sit by the window on the plane, because George said he "called it". So funny!

Besides the reflecting windows and roof tops, the water looks to be a mix of colors, with rose and green being the most obvious. I'd love to take a picture of it but my camera is mad at me these days. My friend, Julia, might be able to coax the settings for me, since both Dee and she are familiar with this particular Canon. They win prizes in art shows, and I have to sweet-talk mine into messing up a shot of the moon! Ugh!

Justin had a rough, cold day today having to help his father chase down an escaping jet ski. Evidently it had worked its way free of the ropes on the floating dock and drifted miles and miles down the river. An officer from the Fish and Game Commission called to report that he'd found it near the Shands Bridge. It took the two guys about an hour and a half to get over to the site where it was found, and then another hour and a half to get the trailer, wade into the water to load it, and get the ski delivered again. On the coldest day of the year (so far) and Justin is out wading around in ice cold water to rescue an escaped jet ski! And now the water is rosy pink, dotted with leaping mullet----cool!

Did you notice how a few weeks ago all the news reports were about the financial crisis, ticking down the Dow futures, remarking about how low it is going, etc., etc. Now, it barely gets notice, I have to go in search of the wonderful news that the financial markets are dropping off the charts, but wait, there is a crisis somewhere else to be dealt with. In my search, I found a report on Drudge stating the markets are at their lowest since March of 2003. Somehow, I feel a tiny bit better.

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I just love it that Jerry and George are sitting in the back of the patrol car scolding the officers for going on a call, when "they have an appointment". Where do they get the nerve to act up in front of the cops? Not the first time either. They are "going downtown" in Hollywood to talk to a detective about Kramer being sought as a seriel killer. On the way to the station, the cops get called to an address and when Kramer opens his door to about 20 people crowded into the hallway, he says, "Jerry! George! What are you doing here?" while the detective is standing right in front of him with a badge in his face. He is so "unaware" of what's going on around him.

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My scrapbooking ladies didn't come today but I managed to keep myself busy in my warm, snug office. Venturing out into the cold rooms only long enough to get a soda or heat up some food for lunch, I'd rush right back and close the door to keep the heat bottled up in this room. I feel sorry for those who had to go out in the cold, cruel, world. Well, the sun has set and now lights replace the sun reflections across the river. It's nearly time for me to head out for choir rehearsal, and am looking forward to seeing Paul and Emily being there again since he's done with his classes for the rest of the year. It will be good to have help with the soprano parts, especially since I'll be gone over CHRISTmas, finding out what cold really is! Linda's new house has heated ceramic tile in the bathrooms-----think I'll stay over there when I'm in Manty, sprawled on the bathroom floor!