Catching up on this and that

I found some narrow leg, boot cut Chico's jeans at the Discovery Shop for $7.50 yesterday. Very comfortable, but I'd never pay $70.00 for them new, and these look like they've never been worn or washed. A tad long, so I wear my boot scooting heels with them.

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My husband had a few spots removed by the dermatologist--one about which I've been nagging him for a long time. However, they were not dangerous or even suspicious so the procedure was "cosmetic" and will not be covered by insurance.

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A friend went to the ER with symptoms similar to a heart attack, but it wasn't, it was his gallbladder, and he will have surgery sometime soon. But in the process of testing him for everything, a dangerous condition very rare, and unknown to him, was found and will be treated with medication (but not cured or removed). So perhaps the incident was a God thing?

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While at the Discovery Shop I found a review journal for $3, hard cover, on a topic a friend needs. I've never seen a title like this as a used book, and I've only known for 5 days that she could benefit from this very narrow field of knowledge. Another God thing?

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My husband has just made a young bride and groom very happy with the gift of a fabulous watercolor of the old Abigail Tea Room in Lakeside, Ohio. They've had the spot picked out to hang it for some time (married in April), but had been busy. He was just about to put it in a show in which case it wouldn't have been available. Aother God thing?

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I'm having the best time volunteering as a conversation partner with a young woman who needs practice with English. She's been in the U.S. for over 6 years and her children all speak English. It's such fun to talk to her and to practice works like Mass a chu setts and Penn syl van i a. She says she likes me as her partner because I speak distinctly and she can understand me. Also, I love to explain things, like the fact that a C has no sound of its own. Cat is kat; century is sen shur i.

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Tomorrow our Lytham Road Traditional service communities of Upper Arlington Lutheran Church (we have 9 communities based on worship style) are having a brunch at 9:30. I've decided to make peach cobbler--I have a peach that needs to be used up, and a large can of peach pie filling. Yum.

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When I was in Mt. Morris last Saturday I had a chance to visit the home we lived in from 1951-1958. Although I was 18+ when my parents moved, it did seem smaller. My mother worked so hard to remodel it and make it lovely for us, so what fun to see some of her handi-work still there--like this bookshelf unit disguising the radiator in the living room.

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Although I went to the cemetery last week and visited some of "the old folks at home with Jesus,"--great grandparents, great aunts and uncles, grandparents, sister, cousins--I also found some live ones in the parking lot of the Mexican restaurant. I met my 2nd cousin Sharlein, whom I probably only saw a few times when she was a little girl, her son Bryan, my 2nd cousin once removed, and his wife and adorable baby daughter, 2nd cousin twice removed. So I've added a few names to my Family Tree Maker 2008 (which I hate--liked the older 7.0 version). Also found on Facebook my first cousins once removed Lorrie and Jodie (grand daughters of my Uncle John), although I haven't made a connection yet. Also I've been friended on Facebook by a high school girl friend of my son, Kristina, who is a dead ringer for my daughter and reconnected with her step-father Dermot of whom I'd lost track in his world travels.

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We're half way through October and the colors are brilliant and the rains gentle--a perfect color combination or red, yellow, orange, burgundy and green.

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I've started Condoleeza Rice's new autobiography, Extraordinary, ordinary people. Only into it by 2 chapters, but it promises to be a great read. I like her writing style--spare but descriptive. The account of racism, prejudice and Jim Crow laws (put in place by Democratic "progressives") she writes about in the 1950s south is harsh, but she doesn't portray herself or her family as victims, and she isn't a whiner. Of her parents she says, "Every night I begin my prayers saying, "Lord, I can never thank you enough for the parents you gave me." Amen, sister!

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Tried 3 new (to me) restaurants when I visited Mt. Morris last week. La Vigna is on Daysville Road near Oregon, and over the last 65+ years I've been down that road to "the farm" I've seen a lot of establishments in that location. Very good Italian food. Then my classmates from high school met for lunch at the Pinecricker Inn in Polo--before everyone slipped away we took photos on an unseasonably hot day. A Pinecricker is someone who lived in the area of Pine Creek, near the White Pines State Park. My father grew up in that area and attended Polo High School.