Beautiful day. . .

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, but cool - 59 degrees this morning. The sun was out, but I put on a sweater (but still wear shorts) to go to the clubhouse to have a practice for Showtime. The ladies are very dedicated people and certainly want to try their best. As mentioned before, some of them don't read music at all, but they're all doing fine. I think each practice makes them better and better. And they're getting to feel more assured. I know I'm progressing - and doing better on the accompaniment. Especially when there are 5 sharps in the key signature! I did some practicing last night and today it worked better.

Since our rehearsal was set for 9 AM, I set my alarm for 7 and got up with Gracie. Paul slept (?) in a little while. I got a load of wash dried, put away, and did some other things. Now I feel I have the whole rest of the day to do the little other things. That's a great feeling. Ex. writing in my blog. Ex. My camera's flash doesn't work. We've tried everything. Paul even looked up the manual on the computer because that's also upstate. We need to contact Nikon about the flash not working. Well. . .Paul got it down here at Walmart, but the receipt is up in NY. I'm going to try to figure out how we can get another receipt from here, so that we can "talk" with Nikon about our problem. (visit Walmart's service department) We're sure the camera's still under warranty. That info is also up in NY too!

Paul and I stayed home Sunday to watch the Superbowl. We're not big football fans unless it's college games, but it's still fun to root for a team that means something to you.(The Pittsburgh Steelers - since Paul grew up in Pennsylvania, and went to Penn State). Oh, well. You can't win them all.

Anyway - we also watched and taped the Puppy Bowl on the Animal Planet for Gracie. Yes. We really did. It's become an annual event during Superbowl. I guess they figure everyone's watching the Superbowl, so they postpone all their programming and put on "The Puppy Bowl". If you haven't seen it, it is awfully cute. There are a bunch of different types of puppies in a closed in room shaped like a football field, a bunch of toy footballs and some announcers "announcing" the game. They have kittens for cheerleaders, and hamsters in the "blimp" over the "stadium". I imagine they have a large viewing crowd, since they continue doing it each year. What we enjoyed most was watching Gracie watch the puppies. She becomes completely engrossed in it.

Paul is very busy with his newest project. We ordered a new over-the-stove microwave from Lowe's a couple of weeks ago. We wanted a bisque color to match our stove, fridge, and dishwasher and they didn't have it in stock. It arrived yesterday, he picked it up, and began working on it again. This is turning out to be more challenging than expected.

He knew he had to remove the old yucky vent above and cut off the bottom of the cabinets over the stove, to make room for it. All these old houses (1980 era) have this problem, otherwise, it's difficult to stir a pot on the stove. Not enough room. So he did that, early on, figuring he wanted to get as much done and out of the way as possible before he had to begin putting it in. Now he's building a shelf to put it on.

Jil is busy filling out forms to get Epril here. The present due-date is August. He had to make a copy of all the pages (76 pages) on his Passport, so yesterday that was his project, using Paul's computer and printer. I just proof-read the present form he's presently working on. BECAUSE on the first form he mistyped the area code down here and delayed the long process by days because it was sent back. Two sets of eyes are better than one.

We never did get to see The King's Speech on Saturday. We arrived just before the show was to begin and they only had single seats in the first row. No thanks. We ended up going to Books A Million and having some coffee. . .and windowshopping. Actually I bought Paul a John Grisham book. It's on the bestseller list and I know he loves John Grisham books. And I will enjoy reading it when he's done.

Okay, Jil helped Paul put up the microwave, and it looks great! I pulled the cord through - big deal. Looks like it'll be operative tonight.

That's all the news from the Woods. How're things goin' in your part o' it all?