Updates...

Just a whole lot of fine things this week already under the general heading of the goodness of God etc.
A couple dropped by yesterday to arrange for their youngest daughter's baptism on Sunday. Two older children (girl, 6 maybe; boy, not quite 3) were in the party. To my complete amazement, the older children greeted me, introduced themselves, settled without to-do on the office steps (leading into the chancel) and were instantly immersed in...BOOKS... Later I took them on a walk around the inside of the church; they solemnly and politely observed from a distance while our substitute organist practised...and they went away very happy each with a copy of "Life in the Eucharist." Which the little girl promised to read to the little boy. You could have knocked me down with a stone block of wood... Children! Reading! I thought they were all extinct!

Then I decided to SPEND my birthday gift card for a very high-end stationery store, so I had a lovely self-indulgent time perusing all, but ALL, the merchandise ("Would you care to fondle some pens?" was the proprietor's sympathetic question). Found some nice Monet water-lily note-cards, notes for the Daughter Unit and SIL, and an utterly chi-chi little pad of monogrammed purse-notes, in a fancy gilt cover with JOOLS on it, and a magnetic clasp.

And then I took myself to lunch (hedonism being the order of the day at this point). There are a number of high-end eateries in the same neighbourhood as the stationer. Most were busy, so I opted to try Il Violino, a recent replacement of a former favourite in a big old house, hoping it might be good...


AHHHHHHHHHHHH. "La gastronomia Italiana," indeed. Elegant, elegant, elegant, and sufficient in quantity, and not unduly expensive, even without the Seniors' 10% discount (next year, next year)...and with a lovely glass of Pinot Grigio...and I read ALL of Sinners Welcome (Mary Karr), over my lunch, including the essay on Poetry and Faith. I had been given her childhood memoir, The Liars' Club, by one of my wedding couples, with the encouraging review, "This book makes ALL our families look NORMAL." Loved it...and so ordered the poetry collection. My, my, my. I started "Delinquent Missive" --
"Before David Ricardo stabbed his daddy
sixteen times with a fork..."
and I thought, "Mary Oliver she's not"...but oh there are such interesting points of contact even so.

So one way or another yesterday was a bit of an ORGY. (We were due for one.)

And this morning the secretary/bookkeeper, safely returned from her vacation (in itself no mean blessing), reports that we are eighteen thousand dollars IN THE BLACK...and it's still only August, folks!!!

I have about six little tasks to do here and then I am skibbling home to do housework and call it a day off...funeral tomorrow, wedding Saturday, baptism Sunday...and it's going to be hot again this weekend too.