Working up to winter

This week has been one where every day after work, I really wanted to just come home and curl up on the couch and "veg out" but every night there was someplace I had to be. Tuesday after work I stopped by the visitation for Brad to give my condolences to the family. Steph outwardly appears to be doing well and she has a fantastic support system in her family. I assured her we are doing just fine at work and to take her time and certainly don't come back until she is absolutely ready. There were so many flowers and plants and most of all people, quite a tribute to a very fine young man.

After getting home, I called to discuss the funeral music with Brenda and we agreed to meet up at about 8:30 to practice together at the church. There was still family there when I went up so I went in to the last half hour of Christmas concert practice and then went back to the church. We visited with Fr. Miller, practiced and visited with each other until about 10:15. Made for a short night by the time I got home and unwound enough to sleep. Mike had already left to go to Rochester to depart the next morning with other family members for his uncle's funeral in Ladysmith, WI. That meant that I got a whole night's sleep with no snoring to wake me!

Wednesday was the day of the funeral, work and Reed had Faith Formation in the evening. Once I got home, I did get to stay home but I had to go get groceries after work. Getting groceries has to be my least favorite thing to do in the world -- ranks right up there with scrubbing toilets in my book.

I decided to take Thursday morning off as I knew there would be no mail due to Veterans' Day and being gone all of the previous weekend and most of the week, I needed to catch up. I ended up catching up on a little sleep and then headed out to wash windows. That ended up being a good job done now that the rain and sleet have settled in. At least we do not have mud running down our windows as the rain hits them!

Thursday after work, a group of co-workers headed over to Mason City to go to The Lantern. This is a restaurant that all but one of us had never been to before. It serves Japanese and Chinese and sushi and sake. Our CFO treated us to appetizers and beverages and had us all try the sake (this was out of HER pocket, NOT the hospital's, let me make that very clear). I only tried the cold sake -- didn't think the warm sounded very good. It was different but nothing to flip over. A few were brave enough to order sushi. They did let those of us "chickens" who ordered Chinese try some. There was one kind that I thought was very good -- don't ask me the name, I think it was touric or something like that. I really wish I had the picture of Kim tasting the sushi -- that little twirp made such a face and one of the kinds made it back onto the plate! We also had fortune cookies and we had our share of laughs as not everyone knows that you are supposed to read your fortune and add the words "in bed" to the end. I thought everyone knew that!

Finally it was Friday and despite the cold and damp weather, I was so happy for the week to be over! Once I got home, I pretty much settled in for the weekend except for going to church today. Did some laundry, paid some bills, almost baked some banana bread (that is a whole other story in itself!), got out my breadmaker and made a loaf of regular bread, practiced some Christmas music on the piano, went to Christmas concert practice (Fr. Miller showed up as we were all leaving --lost track of the time no doubt. I told him it was his day off and he just should have stayed home!). I just got done getting out the Christmas decorations (no I am NOT putting them up yet -- just wanted to get an inventory) and am now ready to eat a piece of pizza for supper. Now it's time to psych up for a new week -- bring it on!