91

Yep. 91 Flippin' Degrees on February 23rd. I'll have to start my griping about the hot weather earlier than usual, I guess. grump grump grump!!

Quartet is going well.

Himself is doing well.

My job is still a lot of work (for which I'm thankful...)

Passed my chorus audition last week, so now I've got to start paying money.
It is exciting as we're going to Nashville for the Sweet Adelines International Contest in October... and I know that most of the fun is in the journey ~

"It is good to have an end to journey toward,
but it is the journey that matters in the end."

I spent a lot of yesterday looking up vocal education stuff to work on with quartet.
I now need to do some actual singing...

Going to attend an arranging workshop on April 4th, here in town -- and there are a number of chorus members who want to come and learn more about arranging and barbershop chords etc... so time to brush up on my theory!

I can hardly move in my craft studio/office -- so need to clear some surfaces!

Today I cleared off most of the kitchen table.
I'm not Catholic, and don't know anything about Lent except you give something up. Usually until Easter, but I'm hoping my list will continue for a lot longer than that.

I'm giving up: Fast Food Drive Thrus... this has become a wallet-reducing habit. If I need to eat fast food (cuz face it, sometimes it happens), I have to GO INSIDE.

I'm giving up: TV Reruns... I can't tell you how long I've sat in front of the boob tube watching stuff I've seen before (or worse, shows I can't stand). No More. I've also written a list of the 7 shows (7 hours a week) of tv watching that I'm allowing myself. This is one of the reasons I end up staying up so late (even having fallen asleep in front of the tv, I still sit there instead of going to bed!!)

I'm giving up: Eating in front of the telly. (which is why I cleared off much of the kitchen table.) Usually after the meal I just sit there for another couple of hours, rather than getting up and cleaning up and going and doing something more productive. Getting up from the table is different that getting up from my reclining couch! Easier.

did I mention we turned on the cooler today?!!

A memorable Valentine Day

Today was the 6-month mark since my good friend's husband was killed in the tragic bicycle incident.

At the intersection where the incident occurred, his daughters put together what is known as a 'ghost bike' -- a bicycle painted white, to signify that a cyclist had been killed at that place. There are a number of them all over town, but only because of his death did I know anything about them.

She and I went and got flowers to place on the bike.

We went to lunch and talked about how each of us got engaged... and how long they had dated, and I learned things that I'd never known about both of them.

We went to her house and had delicious blueberry coffeecake, with copious amounts of tea... then we made some papermolds (a cool craft thing), we napped a little, then after we came home we basically napped some more while trying to avoid being licked up the nose by a cutie chihuahua named Penny.

I was glad I was able to be around. This day that is traditionally a day full of red hearts and pink flowers, chocolate and mylar heart balloons... a day that we're supposed to celebrate the love we have for each other -- I think we did that. And we remembered Chuck and their life together, and I think it was exactly what it was supposed to be.

Himself got a beard trimmer for his birthday (yes, he's a valentine baby), and a bag of pistachio nuts for Valentines Day. I got to eat some chocolate hob-nobs (yum!).