FRIDAY: They had a party at hubby’s work on Friday at 5:00. It was a small-scale celebration of the company’s 30th anniversary (the biggie’s coming later in the year, during the good-weather time, but I don’t know how they’ll top the time they had Mary J. Blige, Matchbox Twenty and Elton John come play). I was kicking myself for not taking my camera b/c it was one of the best ones they’ve had in a while. The center of the room/builing (it’s basically a small, open warehouse built for the express purpose of parties) had the stage and a big area set up like a park/beach scene. They had astroturf spread with blankets and beach chairs for sitting with beach umbrellas suspended from the ceiling. One on side, they had different booths with different types of food — Latin American (nachos), Organic Planet (salad, pesto pasta, veggies, mini pizza), and Asian Fusion. In the back, the tubs of drinks. In the center back, the kegs of good beer. On the other side, a clown doing face-painting and someone doing balloon animals…and…one booth with nothing but brownies, turnovers, and three different types of Its-It ice cream sandwiches (I had chocolate!). Then. Then. The piece de resistance (sorry, I don’t know how to do accent grave or accent etgout) — a booth with NOTHING BUT CANDY. There was a 5-lb tub of Red Vines and a bunch of hard candies, but they also had a ton of THE GOOD STUFF: mini Butterfingers, Milk Ways, 3 Musketeers, Snickers, Nestle’s Crunch, Hershey’s Special Dark bars, and more that I can’t remember. It was INSANE. INSANE, I tell you. And yet, somehow, I lost a bunch-o-weight this week….Must be the new “happy pills”; one of the side effects is supposed to be weight loss (I won’t be complaining about that one!)
SATURDAY: vERY full day! At my Saturday morning WW meeting, Sandy gifted me with two lovely skeins of fancy yarrrn. There should be some good pr0n this week! One skein is a bright, multi-colored 100% silk chenille by Alchemy Yarns. The other is a thin, multi-colored (autumn colors) mohair blend with just a bit of glint to it. Oh, yes. Some good yarrrn pr0n coming this week. Afterward, I had coffee and a nice long chat with Merry (aka The Yarn Fairy). We talked about the felted bag class she’ll be teaching at Nine Rubies, among other things. That morning was kind of a cross-section of my life: I went to my WW meeting, then while I was at Starbucks w/Merry, whom I know from the Felted Bag KAL, Shannon & Liz, two single gals from church came in, and Thing One’s classmate Dominic and his mom were there for some mom & son time. Pretty cool.
Had our annual Women’s Day at church. Imagine that I’ve posted a couple of pictures right…here. Blog.com keeps telling me that they’re the wrong format. Oy! Anyhow, it was great. Every detail was was well done, from the beautiful table decorations (there was a contest for best-decorated table), the singing (great job, gals!), the icebreaker, the discussion questions, and the prizes. Several of my friends had really wanted to come but couldn’t make it. I was so happy, though, to see my friend Gloria, who came with Bobcat. I hadn’t seen Gloria since before Paul died, and she’d had a rough couple of years with her health and her husband Hector’s. I’m glad to be back in touch with her.
Directly from Women’s Day, I flew down to San Carlos for a going-away party for Gordon, Fiona, and their kids. This is a picture of them with their cute little grandson, Aaron. Their son Blake will be staying in the Bay Area to be near his son, but their other sons, Trevor and Ian, will go with them. Hubby’s known Gordon & Fiona since 1994, and I’ve known them since 1995. Though they’ll be in St. Louis and we don’t know when we’ll see them again (well, OK, they’ll be out to visit the grandbaby), they will always have a special place in our hearts. As I told Fiona yesterday, she really embodies the verse, “Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.” Sorry to wax religious on ya’ll, but she really does. Fiona is one of the most caring, nurturing people I’ve ever met. She & Gordon were always having people over who needed help in some way. When I first knew her, she was working very hard to help some women in the church up there (we all lived in Marin County) who had been sexually abused. They did a lot of pre-marriage counseling for people, and their home was the site of a LOT of parties and meetings. Hubby & I ended up in their family room when we’d only been married a few weeks, looking for help to resolve something. More recently, Fiona has been trained to counsel rape victims and worked with an organization that frequently counselsyoung girls who have been raped. She has been running a support group in the church for survivors of sexual abuse, and the group has helped a large number of women. Fiona & I got much closer when I was pregnant with Paul b/c we learned that he might have VCFS, the same genetic syndrome that their son Ian has. After Paul was born, when we found out he did, indeed, have VCFS, she was an amazing support, calling me often, going to the hospital with me to visit him. The day that Paul died, Fiona spent the whole day at the hospital with us from about 9:00 in the morning till 3:30 in the morning. She brought us water and did whatever we needed. Gordon came as soon as he got off work and staye for the duration. That is a special bond that we share only with them, MarkyMark & Bobcat, and my parents. On Paul’s “angel day”, we didn’t want a lot of people around, but Gordon & Fiona came with us and MarkyMark & Bobcat to the cemetery and hung out with us, letting us talk when we wanted to and just sit there when we wanted to. We will ALWAYS remember their devotion. Gordon & Fiona, we’ll miss you guys, but I know you’re only an email away! 
They’re dead. Every. Single. One. Of. Them. Dead. DEAD. Twelve dead tadpoles. We scrupulously followed the printed instructions, and they’re dead. Yesterday morning, it looked like a few of them were dead, which was to be expected, but by last night, they were all dead. Dead. DEAD. When I told Thing One, she cried and cried. Now there will be 19 sad children in second grade. They’re dead. DEAD. When I told Thing Two, she asked Are you going to tell [Thing One]’s teacher? I’m bummed too. They were getting bigger, and you could see where their legs were going to be.
