It’s beginning to look a lot like CHRISTmas!

My tree is up and decorated, the lights plugged in and illuminated, as is the garland on the mantle. It looks like CHRISTmas and feels like it outside. The weather took a nasty turn this late afternoon as clouds filled the sky and rain fell. The temperature dropped about 20 degrees between noon and 4:30 pm. Connie asked me if she could use my bathroom when the rain was heaviest, so she would not have to walk over to the pool bathrooms in the rain. Often I have offered her my facilities when the weather is rotten and am glad she accepts.

Last night at bedtime I heard the sound of water again, this time later determined from the drain pipe that runs in the wall between my hall bath and the guest bathroom. I was filled with apprehension, imagining any moment having water dripping through the ceiling vent. Twice before it’s happened to me from above and since, at first, I couldn’t tell where it was coming from, could not relax. Eventually I did drop off to sleep but first thing this morning, I heard it. Jessica jiggled the handles on their toilets and by the time Jeff came upstairs to listen for the sound, it was gone. I was hoping he would hear it and declare me not crazy, but he was not able to do that!!! One thing I am not and that is deaf!

Bible study was interesting this a.m. as we continued our study Nehemiah. Right off the bat this morning, Pastor mentioned that he was having troubles hearing as his right ear was plugged. He was getting it looked at later but in the meanwhile, we had to speak up for him. Class went smoothly in regard to hearing and all that, until we were ready to close. Pastor asked if anyone had a prayer request and I mentioned that Linda was getting a new knee this week, that we should ask the Lord to guide the hands of the surgeons and for healing. Some of the ladies asked if she was having the other leg done, etc. so they knew I said ‘knee’. 

Well, Pastor said his preliminary prayer before the intercessory ones, and then he began to pray for Linda, and the baby….Safe delivery of the baby, new life through baptism, and so on. I was not going to say anything about it, but Ethel did. She said, “Kim, I think Pastor did not hear you correctly…” and he wondered what was going on. Then I mentioned that Linda was getting a new knee but he thought I said ‘niece’. He felt a bit silly but I said not to worry about it, the Lord knew what was needed for Linda. But it was sort of funny, to think about Linda and a baby, instead of her knee. Pastor remarked, “I got through the class without any troubles….”

Twila joined us today, the first time since her heart surgery. She had to endure 12 weeks of cardiac rehab during the week which interfered with Bible study. Plus she had a couple rentals to deal with before settling back into routine. It was good to have the whole group together again, except for Bonnie, who is undergoing chemo therapy. We sure do miss her in the class and in church. She is in for a long haul, and some prayers for her would be appreciated.

Well, since I did not sleep well last night I shall try tonight for a better rest. Rooting for the Saints to win the football game tonight. My friend who bets prefers it so!

"Unseasonably warm"

One must love a report such as this. It was in the mid-70’s today at kick-off of the Jaguar game, and the announcers reported it being a warm one. That was all that was warm about this game, unless flaring tempers count. My friend in IL is fairly convinced the coach will be leaving the team very soon, perhaps even before the season is complete. The team has no hopes for playoffs and the game today was supposed to be played for pride. Well, that didn’t happen! The only thing to be proud of was the military presence both on the field during the pre-game and halftime, as well as in the stands. It was Military Appreciation Day and I envy those who were able to witness this portion of the festivities.

I am unsure if it’s still warm out but the winds have picked up substantially since the sun went down. It sounds much colder than it is, my guess. The oven is reheating my leftovers to have for dinner, a juicy steak and potato skins. The steak is from dinner last night and the skins from today’s lunch. My neighbor asked me up for steak and to watch the Badger game last evening, and who can refuse steak on the grille? It sooo reminded me of the lake house when Justin and I cooked (or Rick did) the beef bought ‘on the hoof’, from the County Fair. Talk about delicious! And last night’s steak was quite good, too, and will be again tonight.

The Badger game was such a blow-out against Penn State that we did not watch the end of it. Only once have a seen a Badger game all the way through, that being the Rose Bowl game with Lynn. Twice now I have seen portions of games---once with Stephanie at Bahama Breeze and this one yesterday. When I left, Randy said I brought him bad luck on his bets, so perhaps I will live without steak for a while! My friends who are Florida/Florida State fans had a game to watch in the evening but that was not for me, not when no steak is involved!

Tracy, my downstairs neighbor, brought me a piece of the wonderful cake Cassidy had made for their feast. Chocolate bundt cake, iced, with assorted berries adorning it. The fruit had been soaked in Kahlua and tasted extraordinary. Perhaps I would simply starve if not for my church friends and my neighbors….Nah!

In all my life I had never seen the movie, any version, of “Death of a Salesman” so Randy loaded it on my laptop via a jump drive. It was in two parts, for some reason, so I watched Part One on Friday evening and the rest Saturday morning. What a grueling yet interesting venture that turned out to be! It was a trip through one man’s life via flashbacks and his own struggles with holding onto reality. Willy talked often with people no one else could see, usually his brother, the play being laden with soliloquies. He lived a life of quiet desperation, my description borrowed from Thoreau, and it turned out, one of lies and unmet dreams. Now, I can chalk it up to having seen the play/movie, this time with Dustin Hoffman playing Willy, and appreciate the references made to this play.

Today was Bible study and church, the first Sunday of the church year. It felt as though one should have a new outfit to wear or something. The mystery of the lost banners solved, the church looked just lovely, resplendent in blue. Part of Bible study was spent finishing our study of Advent and then we recessed to the church where The Maestro, Robbie, put us through our paces in rehearsing the singing parts of The Compline service being used this Wednesday.

Personally, I believe the congregation did not really need two weeks of rehearsal, especially since only a handful of folks were there for it, and half won’t come on Wednesday night. It is wise, though, to make sure nothing is ‘sprung’ on folks, which is why we are going through this process. Last week I wrote an article, which was printed both weeks in the service folder, explaining what to expect that first Wednesday. Robbie is an excellent teacher and explained the service just beautifully. He used this service in his class at school and wowed his fellow students with it, many of whom struggled singing the psalm. Because ‘we’ are accustomed to it, it is a piece of cake, but the music majors struggled---go figure!

When I arrived at church, there were a couple men in the front yard near the sign, apparently looking for something in the ground. Once I got inside the Fellowship Hall I was informed we had no water. Oh, oh! That was a problem not only for us worshipers and for making coffee but also the preschool which cannot operate without running water. As men began to arrive, the able-bodied and skilled got busy trying to figure out what was going on, and the maintenance chairman was reportedly on his way. One of our members is a plumber so Darwin called him to come early to church to help out. Unfortunately the men were dressed in their church clothes but none seemed to be muddy from head to toe. New pipe was being installed, a repair to a connection it seems, and flow restored not long after church began. Judy stepped out before the sermon to brew the coffee and all was again right with the world!

At the opening of the service, Robbie served as cantor as we sang “Come, Come Emmanuel” antiphonally, something we have done in the past. It reminded me, as always, of my former pastor, Pete, and made my heart smile. It was a good service today!

Being Fellowship Sunday, we recessed to have some refreshments and add our monetary support to the scholarship funds we have for two students at LPS. One, Anna, is the pastor’s daughter, and the other, a young man from Christ, Keystone Heights. Judy makes wonderful little sandwiches and has cookies besides. Since there were sandwiches leftover, she sent them home with Mike S., who is a single guy. He said it forces him to stop for lunch, now, instead of working straight through. He is such a nice young man and was the first one busy with the shovel this a.m.

After getting things cleaned up, Judy and Terri T. and I went to Chili’s for lunch, as Terri had a coupon for free appetizers. My entrée is the appetizer but did not use her coupon for it. Judy and she shared one plus another appetizer as their meal. It was good to be out with Terri again and catch up on what’s going with her. Judy and I get to see each other regularly but not always is Terri available. Loved it, perfect way to conclude the holiday weekend! Too bad the Jaguars lost though….

A special gift from David

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tAiC7nfht0E

On ThanksLiving Day, I was here in Florida, celebrating with my son plus some church family and other friends. I was missing all the fun, though, with the biological family who were gathered at my niece's home in Sheboygan. My bro-in-law, David, my favorite one at that, was gracious enough to make a video of the gathered family wishing me a happy Thanksgiving. Later, he found out the sound was not turned on to record their voices, so he put a musical number behind the video and added captions which were really funny. Yes, I am motion sensitive but I still loved it. I told David that I have to take a Dramamine before watching our home videos of when the kids were little and of our cruise to the Mediterranean in 2000. Wheeeee!

In watching David's recording, I held myself together well until Lynn and Lisa popped into the frame and together wished me a happy Thanksgiving, and then tears began to flow. Mom is the first one to extend greetings and the video ends with Gabe opening his birthday presents from those not able to be with him on the 14th. He is 8 years old now, unbelievable! Manny, his 6 year old brother, was lying on the sofa, sleeping, as he was not feeling well. Angelo was on his other grandma's lap, and did not appreciate being parted from his cuppy for the video!

I got to see three of my sisters as well as my mom, my nieces and nephews, and my great-nephews via this video, plus my bro-in-law, who made the recording. Imagine what a great feature this is for our military and others who are away from home during the holidays and other times, to be nearly instantly, almost live, connected with their families at home. Thanks, David! You are my favorite, too!

It doesn't 'feel' like a Friday

“It doesn’t feel like a Tuesday”…."Tuesday doesn’t have a feel, but Wednesday does….” Quotes from Seinfeld, of course. And today did not feel like a Friday, especially after going to church yesterday! But the sun was out and the breeze was blowing, and all is well with the world. As long as one stays off the roads and out of the stores, that is!

Traffic, as anyone who has been here will attest, is crazy most of the time and days like today would be off the charts. No traffic at all to deal with when staying in one’s room! This morning my friend, Cassidy, tapped at my door to let me know she was moving out, and I was stunned. That was a rather short visit, traveling from Boulder for a two day vacation, but she has to work this evening. She cleaned her room and got a trash bag from me for her wastebasket stuff. I love the bouquet of flowers she presented me. She won’t need to stay here at Christmas, though, as her sister and bro-in-law will not be in town.

I did venture out my door to the mailbox which was jam-packed with mail, lots of sale fliers and catalogs to look at, and my long awaited piece of mail. I also got an invitation to an event sponsored by my friend, Diane, investment company but it is the same evening as my Ladies’ Group Christmas party. Rats! Last year the gathering was held at the Town Center Mall during the day and I could take a guest with me, my Justin! We both love Maggiano’s, where the luncheon was held, and he was the most handsome man in the room.

In my shipment from Amazon the other day I got the stuff I did not order and am trying to figure out how to go about sending them back. Amazon sent me information about how to send back the items; however, the label indicates I am sending back the book I actually wanted. Ugh! This is hard, trying to be a good customer and sending back these items. Hopefully Customer Service will figure out the problem and send me the correct packing slip to include in the box. I will have to take it to a UPS store to return it but that’s fine. It just puzzles me how this ended up in my box of stuff---a box inside a box!

My brother-in-law, David, recorded ThanksLiving greetings for me at the family gathering yesterday and when he was ready to edit it, discovered the sound was not on. To fix that, he put the video over the top of a song of thanksgiving and added captions to the video. As I watched the first time, I held it together until I saw Lynn and Lisa together wishing me a happy Thanksgiving, and lost it. Angelo was not happy about having his cuppy removed to say ‘hi’ to me and Manny was fast asleep on the sofa but all the others greeted me. I will cherish that youtube recording forever, I hope. Almost like being there….

By nine pm last night my last batch of dishes went into the dishwasher and the kitchen looked like nothing happened in there, just the way I like it. The leftovers were put away and all that remained on the counter was a few rolls in a baggie. There! My guests all sort of left at once, but an hour after Natalie and Brenda left. They had to eat and run, as Natalie was having friends over that evening. I was just so delighted they could make it. The rest of the menfolk sat and visited, discussing history and explorers (“Who is your favorite explorer? Mine is Vasco da Gama…” Seinfeld) as I listened from the kitchen. Two young guys and two formerly young guys having discussions in regard to history….loved it!

The ‘holiday’ decorations are up already, I am told they have been up a week, along the streets. One decoration mounted on the light pole would be considered CHRISTmas-y as it’s an angel blowing a trumpet (I bring you good news of great joy which shall be to all people…) but the balance are snowflakes (in Florida?), reindeer, bells, and other more season-based décor. I cannot say if there is a Santa or not, I cannot recall seeing one but that is not to say there is not one. When we talked about it at the table yesterday, I shared the story of my bro-in-law, Harvey, telling me once that he wanted to get out to hang his lights before it got too cold----it was already below freezing!! I find it now amusing to think that way and am so glad I don’t have to do this anymore!

My upstairs neighbor, Travis, was good enough to get a bid from a pavement guy to renumber and identify our parking spaces here at The Palace. I had requested of the Board that the guest spaces be more obviously marked, since I am having the Ladies’ Group party here. When the building was painted, the curbs and car bumper things were also painted, covering the markings indicating “GUEST”. The price is not all that expensive yet could be considered to be pricey. One BOD member thinks that Connie should take care of that but some of the work she has done using white paint and a stencil looked sort of amateurish, as though we were trying to save money---which we are. Like Travis said, if we all just chip in a $100, it could be done professionally. Such is life in the condo. I could hire a valet for the night to park cars for my guests…Last year we carpooled to Fran’s house in Arlington and I suggested the ladies do the same type of thing for coming here. If they didn’t have to carry their snack to share and a gift, they’d be okay parking up by The Club. Oh, well, thanks anyway, Travis!

On the news they are showing the frantic shoppers, foolish if you ask me, standing in line and then pushing/shoving to get into the stores. Every year it’s the same thing, and getting progressively worse, as greed robs people of good sense. The thrill of the hunt, yes, I get it. Mom said she wishes this was not connected to CHRISTmas but it has so little to do with the actual celebration. When people are buying big screen TVs and entertainment centers, likely these are not gifts for others, but for their own homes. On Facebook more than one person reported purchasing items for themselves or that the young shoppers in the family obtained items for themselves rather than as presents. My commenting about it won’t change the situation but I certainly do not mind sharing my thoughts of this madness. I am all over the madness!

ThanksLiving Day feast

Cassidy, my houseguest for the holiday, presented me with a bouquet of flowers in a lovely red vase. The red candleholder next to it was made by my friend, Helen.

All things are ready, now all I need are the guests and, oh yes, some food!

Robbie, a.k.a. The Maestro, joined our group as did Brenda and Natalie North

Even though the camera was handy, I forgot to take pictures of the table with food and people around it! After dessert, here is Larry Reiter and me. See my soda can? At the end of the table is Randy, sitting in the 'grandpa' chair, as he referred to it

Robbie seems to be content after having his dessert

This handsome young man is wearing his Packer gear, having already taken off his lovely #12 jersey.

Randy brought his own man-sized wine glass, as well as corn bread sausage dressing and whole cranberry sauce, and oh, yes, his own wine!

So loving the aromas

It seems my neighbors and I are filling the air with the delicious scents of cooking for the ThanksLiving Day feast. Earlier I had the doors open and holiday cooking smells were sweeping through the room. Mmmmm…..Most of my preparations are done, all they need is to be reheated and/or placed on the table after the football game tomorrow. Whoo hoo! Go Pack Go!

Since most of my prep was done, including dressing the table, I had considered going over to Victory for church. Pastor sends an e-mail outlining the service coming up, and this week I got two of them. One is for Thanksgiving and the other for Sunday’s service. Justin discouraged me from going tonight though as his father and Janet were planning to attend. Just as well, I can stay put and rest my bones for tomorrow.

The cooking and such went so smoothly today that I also had time to write my CHRISTmas letter for inclusion in my cards this year. Somehow I found myself awake before 6:00 a.m. and because I have my downstairs neighbor, Cassidy, staying with me, did not get busy in the kitchen. That room is right off the kitchen and any noise I would make would resound in her room. A good hostess would not make all sorts of racket in the wee hours of the morning. I thought she was coming in much later as she was meeting some friends last night, but she told me that she was home by 11:15 or so. I never heard her come in at all, how about that!?

I had gotten a package from Amazon a day or two ago, and opened it when Cass was in my room. She might want to watch one of my videos so I was sharing with her. Inside the box was the book I ordered plus a couple videos. And another box…hmmmm. Inside that box were two unusual items, including a fancy cigarette lighter and something for sharpening bullets. I did not order these items and am not sure what they were doing in my purchase. I wrote Amazon a note to let them know, as I would certainly like to find out what happened to my purchase which was lost. Interesting!

Later this afternoon Randy popped by, fully expecting me to be in a frenzy with the meal preparations. He declared my kitchen far too clean to have meal prep going on, but explained I was mostly done and the dishwasher is handling the mess. More than once I have said I like the kitchen to look like nothing happened here, move along. He was also astounded to see the table dressed, for all except the food!

My back held up nicely today even after carrying the extremely heavy basket of wet towels from Jessica’s porch railing. I told Connie I would wash and dry them since they were hanging there since yesterday’s flood and were getting wetter from the rain showers in the morning. Connie gathered them up and put them in my basket, which I then carried to the laundry room. Soaked towels are incredibly heavy! They are now fluffy and dry, ready for the next water adventure!

Randy is making sure we have ‘regular’ cranberry sauce to eat with his turkey and is making sausage cornbread stuffing. Oh, and bringing his own wine since I don’t know what kind Larry is bringing tomorrow. All this talk about food is now making me hungry so I will go scavenge in the kitchen for something to eat. Food food everywhere but not a thing to eat!