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One of my volunteers at  has always been very encouraging. He’s a great man and I’m sad that he chose not to continue volunteering this year. He’s getting closer to retirement (I think) and perhaps he just wants to spend more time with his wife and grown kids (are there grandkids on the way? perhaps).
At any rate, his encouragement has always taken a special form. I don’t lock my office at . The lock is tricky and testy and it’s just not worthy my time and effort. He’s taken advantage of this to leave me little notes every once in a while. Some examples:
 Smile!  May God grant you all that you need this day to carry out His will. Sometimes they’re more lengthy:
 I want you to know that I will be praying for you and the youth this year, and thank God for His faithfulness in bringing someone like you to this church family. Keep (over)  living out what has been placed on your heart. and
 Just a note of thanks to you for making the Word of God come alive for the youth here at FPC as well as myself. Your sharing and teaching about the Bible is a real blessing to us all. (over)
doing a great job of sharing what God has given you.”]  My most favorite arrived just a few weeks ago.
. God's peace to you this day. (over)”] Nothing special, right? But then, check out the back side:
 We need more Post Its. That just made me smile.
What’s made you smile recently?
Has my life been boring lately, or what?  came over on Friday night and we watched LOTR: Return of the King, so now I am finished! Fabulous, I must say. There were several differences between the books and the movies, and while I am OK with most of them, there were a few I didn’t approve of. I won’t get into it, because, really, why?
Well, time to leave work. I’ll try to post something vaguely interesting tomorrow, even if I have to make it up.
I had some quite interesting political revelations this past week. First I was reading the Children’s Defense Fund‘s Legislative Scorecard and realized that all the people I would vote for were democrats. Then I was reading this month’s Real Simple and decided to evaluate the presidential candidates. I put little stars next to the things I agreed with, frowny faces near what was bad, and wrote BAD if it was really a horrible thing (an example? partial birth abortion). It was close, but Kerry came out ahead, with only two BADs (GWB had 3) and three more stars. I’m still undecided – I have to look closely at the BADs and frowny faces and stars and really evaluate each of their values. I’m really about 50-50 on the two of them (like much of the nation, I fear).
This shouldn’t really be all that surprising. Every political-party test I’ve ever taken has had me coming out in the middle. I like spending money the way the Democrats do, but with Republican morals (not values, morals).
Just thought I’d share.
Again, in the Skyway today, I saw the Parrot man. This time, I had a very hard time controlling myself, stopping myself from not laughing out loud. Not helped by the fact that the parrot was talking about itself in third person. No kidding.
This has been a recurring problem, being able to stop myself from laughing out loud. We’re doing this new version of the Doxology in , and it’s just a little too jazzy for me. I mean, really, its not, because it’s a step in the right direction, but its all too funny.
Rockin’ out to: Martina McBride’s Greatest Hits
Talked to  and his wife ( ) last night on the phone. Last time I talked to them she had just started radiation for the cancer, a treatment she hadn’t tried before since she also has Lupus. But one of the spots on her spinal cord had grown, so they needed to work on it. Well, after two weeks (5 times a week) of radiation, apparently the pain is gone, which the doctors are taking as a good sign. She has a bone scan every 3-4 months, so we’ll know in a month or two what the situation is, but the doctors sound optimistic. She didn’t have any major side-effects, so that’s good too.
Nothing else is going on. I get to leave at noon today, since my ride is picking me up at 12:3o from home to go to . From there I can pick up my borrowed car again, and be independent. Apparently there was nothing wrong with it. See how much I know about cars? Car doesn’t start – not a problem! Who knew?
Rockin’ out to: Noisy co-workers — get some respect, man!
I went for an absolutely lovely walk last night. Since I was without a car and needed to pick up my dry cleaning and some food for dinner, it was the perfect opportunity. I brought my new cell along and even got a call (which was terribly exciting, even if it was “just” from  ).
My neighborhood is wonderful! Just a few blocks from where I used to be, and it’s much the same, but different enough as well. There are many more trees, and it feels very residential, almost suburban (in that old-school-suburban kind of way, not the new cul-de-sacs and no trees and every house looks the same kind of way), but at the same time there is so much around that is convenient.
I saw houses that were brick, stone, sideboard, stucco, and all combinations of the above. They were gorgeous. There are so many squirrels in my neighborhood, as well. ( really wanted to catch one this weekend while he was outside, but alas, he was on a leash.) It smelled wonderful, and everything looked beautiful. Leaves have started to fall, and as I walked down the sidewalk I crunched on yellow and brown elm leaves that had piled up. I wanted to skip down the street, but I controlled myself.
I walked behind two old me in conversation as they went to the cigar store. I walked past the F. Scott Fitzgerald house (who knew?). I walked past the restaurant, “La Cucaracha,” which actually has a mural of a cockroach on the side of the building. ( refuses to ever go to this restaurant on the basis that it is named The Cockroach, and I completely understand, although they’ve been around for a long time and are, from what I’ve heard, a very good restaurant.)
I picked up my dry cleaning, and called, so I forgot to stop by Ace, but I think I’ll go for another walk tonight, so I can stop there. On the way back, I stopped at Mississippi Market to get avocados, cheese and bread for dinner. (I had a fancy grilled cheese – with Havarti, avocado and sprouts on sourdough – inspired by the recent edition of Real Simple).
If you’re in my neighborhood and you’d like to enjoy a walk,
 you can try mine, but basically you can’t go wrong, regardless of which direction you turn (unless of course you manage to go far enough west and north that you hit the best place to buy crack in the Twin Cities, which is really only three or four blocks west and two or three north).
Then later that evening I cleaned up the front room (where I’d been storing all my unpacked boxes) and talked with  about painting (very excited, may end up painting the whole place, because, really….) and convinced her to get rid of the rug in the front room because it’s hideous and disgustingly dirty. Very exciting. Wonder how much I can get done before  gets here next month?
Rockin’ out to: “Heaven Help Us All” by Ray Charles & Gladys Knight, on Genius Loves Company
Checked my bank account today and actually had money in there, so I treated myself to lunch instead of having the egg salad sandwich I made on Friday and didn’t eat then either. Here’s today’s fortune:
 This, of course, is completely perfect for today. Friday, a man I knew from a work-related organization died (or at least I found out on Friday), and he was a very nice guy and much too young. Then this morning it was reported that Christopher Reeve has passed away. Plus, after reading the local paper, it appears that many, many people have died this weekend. That includes 3 brothers (ages 16, 18, and 20) in a car crash, and a 2 year old girl in a canoing accident.
What does one do with that?
In the past week, my Favorites>Blogs has been reduced by at least half. Either people stopped blogging entirely, have decided to blog only once every month, or have just annoyed/bored me enough to delete their link.
This has, of course, resulted in my lack of blogging as well. I need some new inspiration. Help!
Rockin’ out to: Ray Charles, Genius Loves Company, “Somewhere Over The Rainbow”
Wisdom Source: Innocents
Today’s Wisdom: yeah, there’s no wisdom in that book. pure fluff. at least so far.
What kind of jewel are you?
Watermelon Tourmaline
 You are truly one of a kind. Your beauty is unique, which makes people love you all the more.
Click Here to Take This Quiz
Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.
Boy, did I shop this weekend!
Friday I bought two pairs of brown shoes (one to replace my Docs that were pieces of crap, and one pair of boots because I wanted them and they were cute), and then I broke down and bought a poncho – I’d been watching the prices at Fields and they went from 38.00 to 29.99 to finally 24.99, so I got one before all the good ones sold and only the crappy super-trendy ones were left.
Then after my doctor’s appointment I went to Target and stocked up on things for the new place – nothing too terribly exciting, except for a lot of Coca-Cola (current “chocolate“). BTW, after that last link I found this, just further evidence that astrology is mostly bunk – I never “draw it out” to make it last – very much not into the delayed gratification thing when it comes to food.
Then Saturday and I went to Organized Living so I could get new shoe bags since my old one was an over-the-door and my closet doesn’t have a door. We also went to the MOA to look at DSW‘s shoe collection, but they didn’t have the Sketchers I was looking for, so we didn’t buy anything.
I also did grocery shopping.
Sunday after I stopped at the Super Target to get a black shirt to go under my new poncho (which I’m wearing today along with black pants and must say I look very svelte) and heel pads for new shoes and a light for my closet and some other miscellany. I did get new body wash, since I’m almost out of my Dove and it doesn’t really suds up well in the bathtub, even when I run the jacuzzi jets. What I got sounds incredibly yummy, and I almost wish I was out of my old stuff so I could start using the new stuff, but, it may not be fantastic since it’s not super-moisturizing. That’s what lotion’s for, though, right? This becomes important since this morning while waiting for the bus it was a chilly 34 degrees. That’s just 2 above freezing!
The soap I got?
 Vanilla Brown Sugar You can get it here [link removed], or at a variety of drugstores, I’m sure. Yum-my!
Just in case you’re wondering – no, I didn’t hit the jackpot. I just apparently decided to spend ALL of my paycheck within the first 3 days.
Rockin’ out to: A Little Less Conversation by Elvis
Wisdom Source: No reading for pleasure these days – all spare time is spent unpacking, cleaning, or preparing lessons for either youth group or Sunday School
 While I don't have a picture of my bedroom, I do have this lovely picture of the house I live in.  Also, to prove how small a 6x6 cube is, I have this picture of me in my new one. Have a great weekend everybody!
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thankful
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