Treated like royalty

Last night Justin and I had dinner at Koko's (Saigon Tokyo Bistro), the first time being there in a while. They miss us when we let too much time go by between visits. It is hard on me to not have them open at lunch time anymore because I would have lunch there at least once a week with my friends. They simply could not justify having the lunch hours and it was hard on their staff as well. We want them to stay in business so I will go as often as I can to help keep their doors open. We generally get two meals for the price of one each so the cost is not exactly prohibitive in that regard. 

Tracy, one of the owners, is so good to us, as are the chefs and wait staff. They automatically bring Diet Cokes, know I like two dishes of yumyum sauce, and take onions only for my dinner veggies. And, the chef gives Justin my shrimp appetizer without me having to say anything. More than once as we've left the restaurant with our to-go boxes in hand Tracy or Chris tells us to "have a Kimmy Day!" So cute! Tracy thanks me for posting such positive updates on Facebook, appreciates starting the day with a Bible passage (her daughter finds them for her, she said). This is why I want to keep Koko's open! 

This morning's dramatic sunrise

This morning I went out to water exercise class, braving the now chillier pool temps in order to get a work out. It was said once that shivering is a way to burn calories so I was burning away well before the class got underway. Once we get used to it and start moving around it isn't as bad, but even splashing water on ourselves (myself) in our routines will cause more shivering to result. I wonder how many calories I burn by complaining? I sure do my fair share of it when I am cold, believe me. It was nice to be sitting in the sun while drying off.

There is no need to make dinner plans tonight since we have leftovers to enjoy. Makes for an easy and quick meal for us, after Happy Hour, that is. Not sure I will have any tapas tonight, we'll see if they offer a special or not. Justin can easily polish off both our boxes of leftovers if he wants to, if I do decide to have something with my friends at HH. Right now I can't even think about it but later, all bets are off!

An upcoming gallery show

We have had more than our share of rain of late, today included. I waited as long as I could to head up to Great Hang Ups, so between showers, away I went! The piece I entered in the upcoming photography show was juried in (forgive me if I am repeating myself) so now I had to go up to the store to pay my fee for the framing. All the frames will be the same size and color which is cool, and much easier for Julia to do the hanging in the shop. We are getting the frames for about half the cost of retail so I've got no complaints there. I had hoped to get there before noon to see Dee but I missed her. She leaves to take lunch to her husband but the rain held me back. Shoot!

I am also going to be the hostess for the opening reception which is the 21st so I'll have to rush there from church to be on time. The artists in the show generally do bring something to the opening. I am asking Justin to make some of his mini-pies for me to take to the reception. It's finger food and a sweet, which everyone likes, including me. Justin will be going to the football game that day so I'll have to take the treat to church with me and keep it cold in the fridge. Hope I won't forget it there!

After my time at Hang Ups, I stopped at Publix, glad the rain had ended. I had such a nice time shopping there, always a good experience at Fleming Island's store. Not that other locations are bad, I simply am more familiar on the Island. Not familiar enough, however, because I had to ask two different young men for help finding something, or reaching something from a high shelf. I made note of their names because if a customer reports good customer service, the employee gets a free sub sandwich for their reward. I hope Josh and Chris get their sandwiches! I am making a new-to-me recipe, Pasta Fagioli, like they serve at Olive Garden. Had to find some ingredients I don't normally purchase and the fellas helped me out. 

As I drove home, the heavens opened once again, so I had to unpack my perishables from the car in the pouring rain. I had packed them in such a way as to make the sorting easier once home. Too bad Connie wasn't around to lend me a hand but I managed to get what needed to be kept cold upstairs. That is a job! Makes me feel badly for my sister, Lynn, who has to carry her groceries up a flight a stairs. I am so thankful for our working elevator, for which I paid dearly several years ago!

A meeting of the minds

Tonight we had Ladies' Group at church for which I had written and printed the right Minutes this time. Last month I was in WI and thought I had sent Terri the Minutes, but it came to light that they were not sent. Probably a good thing I failed to send them because they were 'saved' under the wrong month. Ugh! Am I getting old or what???  I have to check and double check things these days because of making foolish mistakes like this.

Anyway, we had a good meeting tonight with much to discuss regarding the upcoming Fall Rally. We ladies need to provide the continental breakfast on the morning of the Rally and dessert for the lunch. Chefs Mike 'n Mike are making lunch---smoked butt and side dishes---the best Rally food in the North Florida Circuit!! I cannot wait! The Rally speakers will be staying with me so I will have to make things ready for them, after Linda leaves, that is.

This morning many of these same ladies met for Bible study at church, having an excellent class. We had such good give 'n take, sort of like when Michael used to do our classes, talking about Martha and Mary. The discussion was whether Martha should have been scolded or if Mary was falling down on the job of being hostess for Jesus, etc. I have felt sort of bad for Martha (yes, I know the 'one thing needful' that Mary was getting) and wish that the story of her powerful witness about the resurrection followed more closely in the Bible than it did. Obviously not rewriting the Bible or anything but those of us who are hostesses and know what needs to be done for guests understand Martha's distress, and those who are hungry for the words of the Lord also understand Mary's settling in to listen to Jesus speak. Like I said, it was a great discussion today, and it felt so good!

For our lunch today the ladies kept asking, rather in general, where we were going to eat. I kept saying, "Wherever you decide..." because neither Judy nor I want to be the ones to always pick. But, no one would commit so finally it was determined we'll go to our stand-by of Longhorn, because Jackie likes it. I do, as well, but don't want to always be the one making the decision. She doesn't like having to pay for her soda which used to be free when ordering on the kids' menu, but she's gotten used to it now. That was one reason we were going other places for lunch, such as the great deal we get at Dairy Queen. It's okay to switch it up once in a while---I can adjust!

A little peek into the past

Justin and I had a most depressing afternoon, at least it ended up that way. First we went to church (I went ahead of him for Bible study) and then attended worship. After church he headed right off to Jesse's as they were tailgating before settling in to watch the 1st game of the season for the Jaguars. Justin had made some wings this a.m. before church, baking them, and then they deep-fried them the rest of the way at Jesse's for their lunch. Sounds good, but not as good as Chili's for the rest of us!

The game started out great, though I didn't actually get to see the first quarter since the restaurant had the Dolphins game on instead. When I got home I found the Jags were ahead 7-0 which was a delight to see and at half-time, the  announcers on the TV made the remark "It's all Jacksonville here in Philly..." with a score of 17-0. Well, THAT was short-lived!!! I don't know what happened in the Eagles' locker room but they came out ready to play, and ended up defeating the Jags 34-17. The first half belonged to the Jags, and the 2nd half was all Philly. Sad sad sad!

Justin came home after the game, of course was perturbed at the outcome but with leftover chicken. He had made a 7 layer taco dip yesterday which he decided to have for his dinner while I simply had some cucumber salad which I had made on Friday. Not much of a dinner for either of us but it did the trick as far as I am concerned. We had a good visit before he retired to his room and I came to my desk. Then, he came back in here and was looking for something on my necklace rack in the bathroom, announcing, "Yes, you still have it!" He came out carrying a dusty but lovely bracelet he had given me for Christmas 7 years ago. 

                                         

He asked me if I can still wear it or if it has gotten too small (he meant that in the nicest possible way). I told him I didn't know if it did or not but I could not ever put it on by myself due to the way it fastened. I laid my arm out and he attempted to affix it to my wrist. His big 'man hands' struggled to push the bead through the loop and I eventually tried to help him, managing to get it hooked. It was not tight but we really had to squeeze my flesh to get it fastened. I wonder if one of my jewelry-making friends could fashion a different type of fastener for it so I could wear it. 

The reason he was so interested in this particular gift to me is because it is the first item Justin ever purchased using his Amazon account. Somehow he could do a look-back to see his purchases and this is what he found. He sent me this picture via e-mail to show me his purchase and the bracelet I have is exactly like this one pictured. It was fun for him to do the look-back to see what he has purchased over the years, now using the Prime for purchasing which gives free shipping. He even bought his text books on Amazon which was wise. Justin is not only a shrewd shopper, he is also thoughtful, knowing my likes and loves quite well. One year I got the marvelous gift of water detectors from him for Mother's Day which have afforded me peace of mind on rainy nights such as this one!

Busy hands are happy hands!

We had all ages show up to work on getting things ready for the upcoming Fall Rally. On the far end of the table the ladies are working on cutting ribbons which will be used for the Prayer Rock to be assembled later. On this end of the table Alicia and I are stuffing the folders with a tablet and pencil obtained through our Synod. Later mission pages and other pieces of paper will be going into those folders.

This project was complicated and it took two ladies to tie the ribbons and get the tying thread through the bows to later be affixed to the bookmark and secure the Prayer Rock to it. I was glad I didn't have to work on that project! My part of this was to type the prayer, using one Judy C. had gotten at a previous LWMS event. Then, I sent the finished prayers to our members, the Nardi's, who printed off, laminated, and then cut the book marks for us. Judy punched the hole for tying the ribbons and rocks. Many hands touched each of these table favors. I hope we get a good turnout for this Rally!

At the other table our younger helpers had put the prayer labels on the cut-outs of Africa which Janet and her friend from MI had taken care of while on vacation. The missionary coming to speak serves in Africa which is why we had Janet cutting them out. Sarah and her friend are out of the photo but were the ones who helped do the labels. So we had our oldest member, Gretchen, plus one of our younger members, Sarah, helping with this task. Alicia is now in confirmation class...how time does fly!

We ran out of the tying string which I was cutting on the far end of the table so Janet took off for Jo Ann's to buy some more. While she was gone, it became evident that the ladies were running short of 'rocks' also, so I called Janet to see if she was still in the store. She had just left and had to go back in to find the right sized beads to use as rocks. Once she got back I started cutting the tying strings again and in no time at all, the project was completed. Thanks for running to the store, Janet! And thanks to Judy for getting everything else organized the way you did!

This is one of the completed Prayer Rocks, color coordinated by Gretchen, which each guest at the Fall Rally will have at their place at the table.  On the table you can see the reel from where I cut the lengths of tying string to secure the rock 'n ribbons to the bookmark. In about 2 hours time we had stuffed the folders, affixed the labels to the cutout of Africa, and made 90+ Prayer Rock book marks, with no bloodshed!

Stayed up too late

The game last night was torturous to watch, the Seahawks beating the Packers soundly. Ouch! I was optimistic before the game and chatted with Linda and Kerry periodically through the game, especially after Justin went to bed. What a disappointment it was!  It was kind of fun watching with Linda because she was ahead of me somehow (on DISH) and would see the play before I did. They were having terrible weather up there, flooding and torrential rain storms, with power outages in areas due to trees falling. Door County, WI really got clobbered and as a result some areas had sewage backing up into homes and businesses. Yech!

Before kick-off last night Justin and I saw this lovely rainbow, right outside our windows

Today I was at the pool for a while, a quiet time since school is in session. By mid-afternoon, though, the families came trickling in, the private school kids still wearing their uniforms. The bathrooms were busy with rapid clothes changes and stops at the cabana for a bag of chips and a soda for their after-school snack. Still in the mid-90's and before the rains come---it's a good day to be at the pool! 

Justin is so sweet to his mama. He was going to Whitey's after work with his boss and Jesse for the half price appetizers and was hoping I'd be okay for dinner. He even offered to make me something before he left. Thanks, Sweetie, but I think I can manage. And I did, nicely! 

Tomorrow is a work day at church as we get things ready for the Fall Rally we are hosting. Judy C. had asked me to write a prayer which would be printed on labels and affixed to a cut-out of Africa. Writing the prayer was the easy part, getting the labels printed kicked my butt. No matter how many times I tried, the sheets would feed crookedly or the text overlapped onto the margins or the next label. UGH! Plan B was to ask the church secretary to print them for me, which worked great. Justin got me this printer for Christmas a couple years ago and it doesn't have a left margin guide for the paper. Labels are too expensive to waste so I deferred to Lynne for this job. 

I forgot to mention that Nancy W. and I had lunch at Ruby Tuesday on, of all days, Tuesday. She was running errands as was I so we met up for a late lunch. On Wednesday Terri T. asked me to meet for lunch which is odd since she works during the day. She happened to be working from home so was able to meet at Grumpy's for lunch. We went over a few things from the LWMS Convention and the upcoming LWMS Rally, with her previewing the prayer. Our group has no official chairperson but do have several who know what is going on and have attended the organizational meetings. My job, besides writing the prayer and getting the labels printed, is to house the guest missionary and her husband. I can do that!

Shopping like a rock star

This morning I made my way over to Victory Lutheran for Bible study, talking to Mom as I went. She was waiting for storms which were expected so she wouldn't have to water her flower pots. I hope she gets her wish. We were minus a couple of people but the class was still good, as we study Psalm 23. Last week we covered the first paragraph in our booklet and stopped there. Today, we finished the page!

On the way back home I stopped at Winn Dixie for some groceries. I had read their ad and saw many items listed as 1/2 price or or BO/GO. Ever since Justin was sick last week, we have been 'trying' to eat better so I stocked up on, of all things, vegetables! I had several recipes for which to buy veggies and other ingredients. We used to eat out more often than we do presently. Justin enjoys cooking so much, we dine in more often than not. If I made the meals and ate them by myself, I could make them last at least half the week. It doesn't work out quite that way now with both us eating from the recipes.

In one aisle, a friendly man about my age and I were both looking for beans. I asked him if he saw something marked as "white beans" and he pointed to them for me. I told him that I didn't know beans...ha ha! Then he needed help finding garbanzo beans and I pointed them out to him. He gave me a short lecture about the benefits of these beans, the ratio of protein to fat and how he prepares them. 

The man also explained to me that the reason he was thin was because he is out of work, has a master's degree, and can't find anything in his field. If he was in military it would be similar to logistics but he is private sector. He recently had an interview in St. Louis but had not heard back from them yet. And, as he looked at my cart with hamburger and a roast, he told me he rarely eats red meat any more, the beans are better than beef. I bet not but okay...All this in the bean department!

The nice man in the meat department helped me find the bratwurst (I am used to shopping more at Publix!) and smoked sausage. He said I should have taken a larger "buggy" but I prefer the littler ones and didn't expect it to be overflowing. Two cabbages, celery, cauliflower, onions, cucumbers, and potatoes take up lots of room in the small carts. Plus, they had Diet Dr. Pepper on sale which took up the bottom level of the cart. I managed to work my way to the register without losing anything or breaking the eggs I had balanced on top. At the check out, the cashier had her helper get a large cart to stack my stuff in. 

When I got home, I had hoped Connie would be lurking about as she often is when I get home from the store. Nope, so I took the items which needed to be refrigerated upstairs with me and left the rest for later. By the time I got that first load up to my kitchen I feared my arms would be longer from the weight of the bags. Yikes! I went down about an hour after I got home and carried up all but the last two. That's enough for one day---Justin carried the rest up when he got home. He asked me if I took someone else's bags because these had veggies in them!! Funny guy!!!  I am only doing it for him so he won't get sick again....plus I like cauliflower!