Easter Sunday, 2011

We had our final small group meeting for church last Thursday night. We've been getting together since last fall and going through the book of Acts as have been the other small groups at church. I hadn't realized we'd been meeting for that long. We took a group photo but we're two people shy as Marilyn and Phil couldn't be with us. It's been one of the better small groups we've been involved with. Tammy led our group and did a nice job developing discussion questions each week along with occasional input from Tom and me.

We'll throw our hat in the ring again next year when they put out the call to organize. It's a nice way to make some more personal connections in a church so large.

Tammy had what I would consider a breakthrough day glassblowing this week. She'd been discouraged because she felt she was stagnating and not keeping up with whatever small successes I was having. I disagreed with her but it was how she felt. Steve worked with us and showed us another method of color application before doing a demonstration for us. Tammy followed Steve and did a really nice job of incorporating many of his suggestions. I couldn't have been happier for her.

We're both excited to get back in the studio on Thursday.

We went over to Mom's on Friday night and spent a couple of hours with her. Rachel came into town and met us there. Mom made for us the best turkey sandwiches I've had in a long, long time. She had a scare at her hairdresser's a couple days earlier when she was left under the dryer too long. It was very hot and her stylist apologized for forgetting about her. Later when she got home she became very confused and had a difficult time forming a sentence while talking with Tim. She didn't feel right until the next day. For the most part, she's maintaining her health from where she was a few months ago. The improvements we were all praying for that would have her out walking regularly again with improved stamina really haven't come about but she seems content so I suppose I have no choice but to be ok with that.

I spent a few hours this weekend drawing a self-portrait. I kept putting off sitting down to do it and my reasons weren't entirely for a lack of time. I think I've been stalling because I've been away from drawing for so long that I'm afraid to try again for fear that my new attempts will be lacking. But I did take some time to try. So-far-so-good but I've got several more hours of work to do on it before it's done. It's possible I'll have a scanned image of it for my next blog. Maybe. No promises.

We woke up today to a beautiful spring morning. Being it's Easter Sunday it couldn't have been a more appropriate day for spring to show itself again. I hope it's a long time before we face another winter/spring combination like the one we've just come through.

The three of us went to the early service at Hosanna. It was quite a choreography of parking lot attendants as they worked to expedite traffic between the hourly services which began at 8:00. Lakeville police were stationed at each entrance/exit to help. I refer to it as fast-food church because the service is abbreviated from the norm to accommodate the additional people but it was very well done. They finished the service with cardboard testimonials (similar to these I found online) which are always powerful.

My riding has been so sporadic lately and although I'm feeling a little anxious about that, I've been staying active indoors so as not to be a total sloth and lose all of my fitness. I'm enjoying not being so one dimensional in my workouts for a change. I did manage to get out yesterday afternoon under overcast skies and a steady northwest wind with temps in the mid-40s for 67 miles. All that was lacking was sun and heat but at least I was dry.

I'm liking very much the new fork, stem and handlebar configuration on my red Serotta.

Video from yesterday's ride.

I'm also still liking very much the music of Adele. My new favorite of hers...