Weekend Update

A fine weekend, it was. Sunny, but cool. (Yesterday was chilly, but the temperature today got to the mid 60s.) Here's the line-up of our activities:

SATURDAY
Started slowly, as usual. Facebooking, bill paying, coffee drinking. Enjoyed some of Evelyn's
homemade raisin bread toasted and homemade granola with yogurt and fruit.
Ran the Corolla to Toyota for an 8:40 appointment to have some little recall repair done.
After we got home, I continued with some e-mailing etc., and we waited for Wendy to get home so she could Skype us. We had a nice time visiting with her. It was nice to see her smiling, and I entertained her by showing her my new camera and its handy-dandy flip-up LCD screen to make taking self-portraits easier.

While we were talking with Wendy, Toyota called to say the car was ready, and by now it was almost 11:30. Evelyn had a $5 gift certificate to McDonald's she had received as a thank-you for sponsoring a group at Community Service Day at CCU last week, so we used it for lunch on the way to pick up the car. (I can't remember the last time Evelyn and I ate at McDonald's.)

After we got home, I went to the grocery, and after that we talked with Jennifer. It was her birthday, and she had been out a lot of the day having a wonderful time alone, doing things she likes: shopping, browsing antique stores. Matt had baked her a cake, and the four of them were going out for dinner to celebrate.

Evelyn and I got ready and drove to Dan and Cindi Cooper's to pick them up for supper and the Cincinnati Pops. We saw Mandy Patinkin (he's much older than this picture). He is an amazing performer, with a remarkable vocal range. He sang everything from Irving Berlin tunes written in 1918 to Steven Sondheim Broadway hits. I'm really glad we got to see him (although I might not make an effort to see him again). We ate dinner at the Bistro in Josepth-Beth's on the way downtown, meeting a couple there. Cindi works with the woman and had arranged for us all to eat together.

SUNDAY:

I hosted at the 8:30 service, and Evelyn decided to just get up early with me and go with me, especially since the bell choir was playing for the service. Brad Wilson preached and had a fine message on "Greater Than My Sin." I really appreciated his transparency when he spoke about the brokenness we all experience  because of our sin. A quote I jotted down: "God can use our broken pieces when we give him all the pieces" (D.L. Moody).

The bell choir had a nice arrangement of "Holy, Holy, Holy" with "The Revelation Song" and accompanied some of the hymns.

We had breakfast at Cracker Barrel (used up the remnant of an old gift card) and got home early. I did 

some e-mailing for work, and about 1:00 slipped on my jeans to play weekend warrior for the afternoon. I mowed a little grass (Evelyn finished it; that's number 4.5 for this year--she mowed the front Thursday and then gave up because the yard was so wet). While Evelyn was mowing, I  did the following:
1) planted a Knockout Rose I had bought at Costco this week.
2) dug up a big clump of daylilies growing beside the deck.
3) planted some of the daylilies behind the rosebush (this is the spot where our white pine was before it died).
4) gave the rest of the daylilies to two neighbors who were out working in their yards too.
5) edged all the sidewalks and driveway in the front of the house.
6) cleaned up the huge mess created by the edging and the mowing.
7) planted two pots of herbs from plants one of the neighbors gave me in exchange for the lilies.
Around 5:00 I came in, took a shower, and then flopped down in the armchair to check Facebook--and fell asleep, just for a few minutes.
We had a wonderful vegetarian Boboli pizza for supper while we watched "60 Minutes" (more Boston coverage).
A fine weekend, all-in-all.