Catching up on Monday

I know it's been awhile since I did a regular entry. I've been busy but also last week was sort of a bummer week for me. Cleaning and putting Gabi's stuff away was a sad chore. But it's done now. Then my mom's 94th birthday would have been on St Patrick's Day and that really hit me hard this year. Maybe it was because Gabi hadn't even been gone a week yet.

Last Friday Barbara and I traveled across town for the regularly scheduled 'Third Fridays at Noon' organ concert at Christ Church, Episcopal. The musician last Friday was Dr Dana Robinson, Professor and Head of the Organ Department at the University of Illinois. At this time this church is housing a beautiful 18th Century Baroque Organ made in Italy in approximately 1750. A local man bought the organ from a German restorer and completed the restoration, including a new electric bellows (the original rope-pull one is still there) he contacted the church's music director to see if the organ could be stored at the church until a buyer is found. This beautiful organ has just four octaves and no pedals.

This gold-embellished, redwood-carved instrument would have been the smallest church organ possible in 18th century Italy. It's just 2 feet deep and houses 241 self-contained pipes. Even so, the sound is magnificent! This is the second time I've heard this organ played and I guess until a buyer comes along, it will remain in this church to be enjoyed by many. The Brombaugh Organ (1979) below is the regular organ in this church. It too has a magnificent sound. These 50 minute, once a month concerts feature classical music. Even though I don't listen to strictly classical music, I've enjoyed the two lunch time concerts I've attended. Friday, late afternoon Bob and I headed across the Narrow's Bridge to his place out in the wilderness. By wilderness I mean, no Broadband Internet and no cable TV.

Friday evening, we were able to watch an interesting program on a PBS station about a couple of American guys who retraced the route of Marco Polo and Saturday evening we watched the VHS version of 'Romancing the Stone.' It was good, neither one of us had seen it for years. I couldn't use his computer to access my AOL account because he still has dial-up and I don't. Even as a 'guest' on someone else's computer, that won't work unless you're paying for dial up too. We did create a screen name for me on his account but then his computer is so old and so slow, I got fed up and just logged off. It took me 20 minutes to get into my eBay account. That was too much for me.

Saturday afternoon, the weather actually turned Spring like for a few hours and we were able to get some work done in his yard. We pruned his huge hydrangea and several azalea's. It was a nice several hours of being outside (with no jacket on), hearing the birds sing and getting something accomplished.

About 3pm we got in the car and headed over to Bremerton to have a late lunch/early dinner. Bremerton is the home of the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. As we came into town there were several large aircraft carriers anchored in the harbor.

The U.S.S. Missouri was here before it was moved to Hawaii and we had the privilege of touring it several times before she left here. After we ate (Chinese & was it ever good!) we went down the street to the local Goodwill. I discovered earlier in the week that I was missing some books from the Jan Karon 'Mitford Series' I've been reading. I was almost thru reading book 5 but I didn't have book 6..so I told Bob, "maybe I can find it at the G.W." I actually needed books #6 & #8 in order to complete the series of 9 books. Guess what ? I walked in the store, went directly to the Book Section and there they were ~in hardback, with beautiful dust covers and in perfect condition for $2.99 each. What a steal! I was thrilled. The Goodwill gets a lots of new books donated by Target and other stores after they've been on the shelf for a period of time or if they have an overstock of certain books. Anyway, I left there a happy camper.

Sunday afternoon we headed back to civilization and it was good to be back at my place with a ga-zillion channels on the TV and lightening fast Internet service.

I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for your kind words of sympathy at the loss of my little angel Gabi. I've received cards and emails~ so many of them. And each one has been so special to me. I'm still really missing her little self...her passing has left a huge hole in my heart and life. Those of us who have pets and love them, bring them into our homes and hearts and when they pass....we feel a tremendous loss. I think it will be quite a while before I open my home and heart to another cat. In looking back there have been 5-6 year gaps in between my past cats, so it may be that long again......or not. Time will tell.

Tuesday is movie day for Barbara and I. We're planning to go see "Duplicity" with Julia Roberts and Clive Owen. We haven't been to the movie for several weeks as there hasn't really been anything we wanted to see.

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and I'm looking forward to 'Dancing With The Stars' and my regular line up TV shows this week. Have a good week, Linda