A Quiet Day

Friday was a qiet day. It rained very hard during the morning. Since Dee had to work, I just stayed put. Took care of things around the house, started the new puzzle and wrote some Christmas cards and wrapped the last few presents. Later when Dee came home, we decided to stay in to work on the puzzle and watch some television.

I'd picked up a new book the other day called Brain Games:Expand your Memory, Reasoning and Creative Thinking and More (vol. 3). It has all kinds of pencil games and it's challenging. Dee likes doing them too, so sometime we work on a puzzle together.

My sister called during her drive from Chicago to pick up my mother to take her to Philly. Normally they stop at my mom's place to rest over night and then head east. This time they were going to stop long enought to get mom and continue on to avoid the bad weather. Whew! That's a long drive from Chicago to Philly. We're all glad my mom agreed to spend time with the girls over the holidays. That way she won't be alone, and she'll be out with other people.

Shopping in Pittsburgh

Thursday Dee and I went downtown to pick up some last minute gifts (a "slide to jpeg" converter box for the computer). This will allow us to take some of the many beautiful slides we have and convert them to the kinds of files read by computers. Then, we'll be able to enjoy them again and again without having to set up the slide projector hoping that it works. We also got a "Toddy cold brew coffee making kit." We like iced coffee when it's made the right way (without ever touching hot water) and so we decided to make our own. It uses a pound of coffee at a time (we grind our own beans) and then makes 6 cups of concentrate that makes about 32 cups of iced coffee. We did lunch at Wholeys in the Strip District of Pittsburgh and had our coffee at the 21st Street Cafe - our favorite coffee spot.

Then, on the way home we stopped at Sams Club and picked up a few items before heading home. The temps were in the 40s and it was dry, so walking around town was very comfortable.

At home we began wrapping presents, and had a delicious roast with sauerkraut for dinner (thanks to the crock pot that cooked it while we were gone). We finished off the evening watching a PBS program about the history of the White House that we'd recorded earlier in the month.

Time with friends and our final "sing out"

Yesterday Dee went shopping with her friend Kathy G. all day. I on the other hand went to my Rotary Christmas luncheon. I took the Campbells as guests because a special musical group from Mars High School was performing as the entertainment. As it turns out the Campbell's granddaughter was in the chorale that played with the stringed ensemble. Here's a photo of the whole group.

The Campbells seemed to really enjoy themselves and the food was great as usual.

Afterward, I did some banking and got a prescription filled before heading back home. I spent a couple of hours with Bonz and going over my music for the last time before our final Bogmeister performance. We sang for the Butler Senior Center at Tanglewood in Butler. We had dinner there with them, and then sang our final "sing out" of the season. Whew! There were maybe 120-150 people there and they seemed to enjoy our music.

Back at home, Bonz and I did some reading until Dee arrived back about 9 p.m. with Kathy. (They'd been shopping for 11 hours!) Later Dee and I went out on the deck to go down to the hot tub when Bonz started barking. The we hears something run down over the hill. I got my flashlight and saw three pairs of eyes looking back up at us - they were deer. Bonz saw or sensed them in the dark and let them know about it. It was really neat flashing the light on them and seeing their blue eyed reflections looking back up at us in the dark. Then Dee and I got in the hot tub and enjoyed the happy bubbles kneading the strain from our muscles after a busy day with friends.

Here's another picture from the High School stringed ensemble (representing the best musician in each section of the orchestra)at the luncheon.

Bogmeister's "Winter Concert"

Here is a photo of the 500 piece puzzle we finished on Monday morning. This one seemed to go pretty fast. Less than a week I think. Actually we began on the 11th and finished on the 15th. Five days - cool.

While Dee was working on Monday, I drove to Monongahela and picked up my mom for the Bogmeister's Christmas show later Monday night. By the time we got back to Mars, it was time for dinner. We picked up Dee and headed out for dinner at Smokey Bones. Then I dropped them off at home and drove ahead so I could be there early for warm up and last minute instructions. The Campbells picked Dee and mom up and took them in their car later.

The concert went VERY well. The attendance was good, and the people seemed to really like our music. I was pleased that 20 of the people I invited were able to come. There were the Fishers and Campbells and the Shafiks of Wilkinsburg day, the three Werme's from Mooncrest, Dee's great neice Ryanne from Seven Fields, Kathy G and Monica from Butler, the Millers and Bonessi's and Mindy C from Cranberry church. We raised lots of food for the Lighthouse pantry and a good time was had by all. We even had a change of "costume during the second half as shown in the pictures below.

Quartet Sings at Worship

Sunday I got an early start because we had to do our final quartet rehearsal before the early service at church. As it turns out all went well. For our song, "In the Bleak MId-Winter," we used microphones and that worked fine. But, I like to sing without them because then I can hear the other parts better. (Our director says that 50% of quartet singing is listening to the other parts.) After we practiced with the mics so the sound tech could get his readings, we went off to the side and sang without them, and the quartet actually liked doing that better.

In fact, we decided that next Sunday we're going to sing carols around the Christmas tree in the greeting area as people come into the building for each of the services. That wasn't my idea, but I was good to see that the quartet wants to get together to try some other familiar songs. Should be fun.

Afterward, we went to lunch at Hoolihan's with Earl and Marilyn C. It's a new place in Cranberry and the food was good. Afterward we went home, changed clothes and then back out again to shop for treasures we need for the holidays. When we got home, the Steeler game had already started. We watched the rest of the game with baited breath (whatever that means) and were happy they won. GO STEELERS! Dee worked more on the puzzle we started earlier in the week. I think a completed picture of the puzzle is coming very soon.

We finished the evening watching a Hallmark channel Christmas story. Today, I travel to Monongahela to pick up my mother for the "Show" tonight. I'm looking forward to the show. Some of our new friends from church are coming as well. That'll be real nice.