June 14, 2004 - 9:10 p.m.

Lucky Me

I work for just about the coolest people in the world! S, the mom, happened to be doing some shopping at Williams Sonoma today. She knows I love anything involving caramel, so she bought me a jar of scrumptious dulce de leche sauce. How sweet! I just had some over ice cream - I warned S that she was jeopardizing my attempts to eat healthily with such a gift - and it was super yummy. Little things like that and when they bring me back gifts from their vacations are perks that mean a lot to me. It makes me feel appreciated. :)

I had a fun, but busy, weekend. On Friday night, I chilled in the quiet house watching TV. Saturday, I slept in a bit, then headed up to my old house in Lowell to help my friends, and former housemates, do some work on the yard and house. I scraped paint and lichen from the siding, helped do battle with a monstrous shrub with the root system of steel, and got to use several power tools. I love power tools! I've been wanting a cordless drill/driver for a long time. I think it's all those DIY shows rubbing off on me.

It was a perfect day to be outside, and it was nice to get some exercize while accomplishing a separate goal as well. I was filthy by the time we were through. So, I came home, showered, and changed and headed to a really fun b-day party for my friend M. We ate lots of food, played wacky games, and discussed several deep issues, like Judy Dench's career and appearance in the Chronicles of Riddick, :)

Sunday was mostly devoted to singing. NCV sang a Congregational church service in the morning and had our normal rehearsal in the afternoon. The church service was actually really cool. The sermon was about how Jesus was pretty radical in his approach towards women. He also pointed out that translations of the Bible often confuse the issue of the role of women in the church - for instance one word is translated as "minister" when referring to a man but as "servant" when referring to a woman. The pastor even went so far as to say that the church sometimes undermines Jesus own message, and that Christians need to be willing to question the directives of the church. Wow! I've felt that way for a long, long time, but have never heard a minister voice such a concept. It made me happy, especially since lately I have been struggling with having faith in the face of a Bible that contradicts itself and Churches that have proven themselves quite fallible over the centuries.

Between singing committments, I headed down to the Charles River and donned my rollerblades. I skated around, checking out the Dragon Boat Festival, people watching, and generally enjoying the sunny day. It was the perfect day for it - bright but not hot. And I am increasingly aware that I really like rollerblading. Especially since it counts as exercize!

So, by last night, I was pretty wiped. But I managed to stay up to watch my beloved Red Sox play a beautiful game. For once, they had all the aspects of the game, pitching, fielding, and hitting, clicking at the same time. They are such an awesome team to watch when they are in good form!

So, that was my weekend. Today I faced the first day of my summer. Meaning B is out of school, so I actually have to work straight through from 7-6:30. Luckily for me, there are only three weeks of this before vacation. I have lots of outings planned to keep us busy, so hopefully we'll have lots of fun and a minimal amount of discord. Next week the girls are done with school. They have a half day on Monday (due to the one snow day from the winter). How dumb is that?

today's project: leaf prints

Did you know? The biggest health complication associated with space travel is bone loss.

�

flutter back - fly ahead