Category: Church

Yesterday….

I got up late … for me … roasted a chicken and made new potato salad.  Then I showed the shop.  Then I went to a church potluck followed by a workshop about leadership, about which I will say no more, except that it kind of brought home to me that I’ve known more about religion since my early twenties than a lot of people, the major takeaway being that the only thing all religions have in common as a precept is ‘don’t gossip’, and then I came home and watched some TV and then Katie came over and removed some more of her stuff to her place and then I went to her place and met her relationship partner SG (who does not own a vehicle or he would have dealt with it) and his two cats Ara and Stig (two mostly black females who are very entertaining and energetic).  He seems a pleasant enough individual, with a lustrous beard.  I was supposed to go to Newton Wave pool with Peggy but the prospect of meeting SG was too much to resist.

So I guess my Labour Day had, you know, labour in it, of diverse kinds.

Today will also be busy, but in different ways.

Keith and Paul dropped over and it was lovely to see them, however briefly, this morning.

Two of the people I’ve known the longest since I got here (a couple in WA state, former coworkers both) have announced wedding plans after 14 years together.  I am so happy.  I’ve been following her posts about him for years now on FB and she has said many times how amazing he is, especially since she has been quite hampered by health issues subsequent to a car accident in which she should have, by the physics, died.  And she’s had a lousy couple of years, what with her brother dying in a car accident leaving young children, and there’s been other stuff.  So I told her “I couldn’t be more pleased about this if it was happening to me!” and I meant it.

I think I need to get another foam mattress; this one is four years old and starting to feel rather lumpish and flat.

Miss Margot had an enormous eye booger the other day, and she started purring when I pulled it out.

I have ONCE AGAIN had to encourage Eddie to stop teasing the dog next door.  I politely asked him to return inside.  Otherwise he sits on the concrete pad when Creamy is on the back balcony and the poor dog barks himself to distraction.

Saw Plunkett & Macleane, and loved it.  I can understand why it got lukewarm reviews, but believe me it has improved since it was released.

 

Delightful

It was very wonderful to see Jerome for his bday yesterday (my visit was brief due to… reasons) and also Mike and Rozo, Trent and his girlfriend (why can I never remember her name??), a neighbour and his little boy, Brian C and Chari, Shannon and the two boys Braden and Lucas (Lucas exploded into an amazing smile when I first laid eyes on him, I nearly burst into grateful tears) and the food was nommy home rotisseried chicken, salad and THE MOST SPECTACULAR raspberry chocolate cake imaginable. Whipped cream icing, om nom nom.

Today, the AGM and a soup lunch. So I hafta run into the store and get everything together for that. Then Audrey comes back here and I stuff everything into boxes and hand it to her. I don’t know what she did to deserve this suffering, but at least I suffer no longer, effective about 5 hours from now….

Café continues slow but the word is getting out and the rec centre isn’t open yet, so there’s some upside, definitely.

Happy Friday!

The moon has been a searchlight in my room these last few nights (I still haven’t put up my blinds o.0 but I think I’ll be able to manage that Sunday afternoon). It was orangey pink last night, quite remarkable, and ENORMOUS as we drove in this morning.

Today plotting and planning at the shop, inventory, beef and barley soup for lunch (o god it is SO GOOD), and then maybe a walk.

Yesterday Paul took me for a walk in Oakalla and I GOT TWO SOAKERS. Hope those shoes dry out okay, and I had a spare set. O well, we still got out in the glorious sunshine, and that shit will happen when you leave the beaten path.

Just a few more hours of churchy stuff and I will be free. I am planning on helping Audrey after the handoff. She is so wonderful.

Keith procured Katie’s contact lenses and she is so happy that she doesn’t have to be spectacled if she doesn’t want to.

Another lovely day

Sales are slowly creeping up, and we’re finding ways to keep things yummy and wholesome while reducing costs, which is great.

Peggy will be by soon to pick up some biscotti.  Mike McG came by and bought muffins.  Happy sigh.

Yesterday Janet Wilson popped by and it was lovely to see her after all these years living in the same town…

The building inspector was awesome and he made me howl with laughter.

Katie is going swimming with her buddy tonight, but I’m just gonna go home and hack away at church accounting as I have a deadline…

The list is getting shorter!

Today – getting menus printed and laminated at Staples now that Jeff has proofread them (thank goodness for his picky eyeballs!), sending credit applications to the meat and garbage companies, Paul coming to store to put in some hooks for the prep table, training on POS and cash register, getting the float for Monday morning.  Katie is still feeling a little under the weather and we can’t tell if it’s nerves or maybe a weird migraine.  I am migraining at the moment but the visual crap has lifted so I’m back at it.  Tom L kindly offered to put up the additional exit sign,

There’s also church stuff in there, but I’ll deal with later today as soon as I have finalized the accounting stuff.

 

 

deaths and entrances

My old self dies a little and my new self is born today.  With luck we will have signoff for a Monday opening for the cafe; with a little spinal firmness on my own part I’ll never be on the Beacon Board again.  Everybody loves having me and the worst aspects of corporate governance are not easily addressed. AT LEAST we are treating our staff members better, or more or less we are, and I did have something to do with that.  And the church is okay-off financially, I am sure next year will continue to bring change.  But I’m done, and I will only be going back to church when I am interested in the sermon topic.  Having weekends completely off except the inevitable worrying about the business will be pleasant.

 

Lovely long chat with Tammy this morning.

Back to the living room clean up in preparation for the board meeting tonight.  It will be easier for me to concentrate on the meeting today when I’m done with the living room.

Churchy stuff

Can’t do anything re the shop today or tomorrow. I have shitpiles of unavoidable work re the AGM.

 

There’s a biscotti batch in the cooler at the shop, and I brought home the lentil soup.  Jeff is tearing a hole through the split pea with ham soup; it really is awfully good.

We found really cheap split green peas at the warehouse place on Kingsway but strangely a 20 kilo bag of lentils is the same cost as what we pay at Galloway’s, so that was weird to find out.  We also found lots of consumables for cheap, including coffee cups, glassine bags, etc.  Snow Cap trading has everything we need in terms of baking supplies in bulk, and then some, and we found a place for plastic containers for muffins for people who want to buy a half dozen at a time.

The website is pretty much done, we’ll be adding menu items slowly and carefully.  We still haven’t settled on a bread supplier but Costco will do for the time being.  I roasted up another hunk of beef.

Katie got up at 4:30 to go pick up Jessica from her midnight shift at SaveOn and they are going to hang out today.  That is true friendship. Spoke briefly to Keith yesterday and told him he must come over and watch Real Humans, the phenomenal Swedish sci fi show.  Cannot recommend it highly enough.

Doors again

Hung around the house all day yesterday waiting for callbacks from plumbers, and nothing.  Around two I realized that nothing was going to happen and spent quite a long time in a nice warm tub and completely disconnected from my troubles.  This morning I am reconnecting with them, ie I have to go to church.

 

I don’t know exactly when church got to be such a drag, I mean a way bigger drag than it is joy, but I backspaced over the next two hundred words, and that’s a good thing.

Now I’m going to feed Kira, pick up the church mail,, go to church just long enough to pick up a document that needs signing and to drop off the sign that accidentally got left out last week and then I’m going to come home and commune with my to do list.  I am sure it will be a lovely service, but I am not wanting to take my aggrieved idiocies to church today.

The dishwasher’s running and Margot has been fed some kitty malt and turned outdoors.

Despite how remarkably unfit for real life she is, Margot knows what day it is.  She picked the morning of the vernal equinox to come outside for the first time in 2013. She rolled around and made her cat with laryngitis noise while Katie watched in startlement.

 

posted this on facebook this am

UUism asks us to love each other for the life we are and not to hate each other for what we believe.  This is antithetical to the current trend in atheism to denounce anybody with any spiritual leanings at all.  UUism says it’s a false dichotomy, given we all occupy one planet, are born, live and die.  As an atheist UU serving on a Board, I understand why a lot of atheists say why bother, and my explanation is that if you want a Sunday school that encourages questions, teaches science based age appropriate sexuality information, teaches children from non traditional families and doesn’t enforce the gender binary, you can either start your own as an atheist or come to a UU church, where they’ve been thinking about this for 50 years and have curriculum, training and teachers to encourage children to develop both compassion and critical thinking skills.  The two most important things about UUs is RE and fellowship of like minded people.

Katie is here

Baking up a storm of maple bacon muffins, some of which will accompany to her foodsafe 2 class today.

Keith is going to the grands this weekend, and he will have biscotti in tow if the gods are kind.

Today I am ENDURING THE HORRAH of completing my first tax documents for the church. I will be glad when this term is over, despite all I have learned.

It is astonishingly windy – the recycling bin keeps leaping up and trying to make a run for it down the porch stairs.  The cats really don’t like it the noise.

Jeff says Margot had some kind of fit the other day.  Her eyes were open but she was impossible to rouse.  Then she perked up and was completely normal or as normalz as that crazy little fur machine ever gets.  Obviously I am mildly concerned but when cats are eating and drinking as per normal it’s hard to stay that way.

mOm, you will be amused to hear that Katie just came up behind me and said “can you read that in the dark?” and turned the lamp on.

Long and amusing phone call with Chipper yesterday.  She’s in much better spirits – her wordplay and sense of proportion have been somewhat restored – and she has been the biggest booster of the plan for the cafe.

I suppose I should pick up the phone and apologize to Carrie for our unfortunate text exchange, but I am still a little mad about it and if I am still resentful an apology will just make things worse.

Saw Mambo Kings the other day. I enjoyed the musical numbers and costume design a lot, and Antonio Banderas is a wriggling sack of puppies cute.

Lots of people asked me for the lyrics to my Beacon bday tune, so I am happy about that.

Receipting for tax time for donors at the church is done…. I will also be stuffing envelopes today.

And laundry.  I thought I was all caught up but the laundry basket is telling me different.

 

Sun is out!

Windy but glorious out there.

I am drinking cold cocoa and preparing to go to the church 30th birthday party.  It should be fun and festive.  I will report on how the song went over before I go to church tomorrow (I’m opening for Audrey the Wonderful (she really is, too, so firm of mind and so soft of voice)).

Paul just called – he’ll be coming as well and is making up some of his famed quinoa tabbouleh.  Of course he had to be reminded about it and that’s okay, it’s cool that he’s coming.

Kate is at her level two Foodsafe course, Monday we open a business account, Tuesday my money to close should come in, and then we hammer a cheque and get it to the current owner and get an introduction to the landlord at some point prior to closing.  Work is happening every day on the purchase, and while I would have preferred opening an account on Friday one business day won’t make a difference.

Everything people are saying on the internet about Amanda Fucking Palmer’s ‘the Bed Song’ is TRUE.  DO NOT WATCH UNLESS YOU ARE OKAY WITH CRYING.

I am writing YET ANOTHER character song for Midnite Moving.  It’s from George to Raven and it’s called ‘and then you smile’.

and I deleted the whole thing in 2020 because it was DREADFUL thank god I have this power.