April Showers...

Whew...what a week. We were busy at work and the excitement of the open house of the new remodel was in the air. As far as my department is concerned, it was pretty much business as usual until the day of the open house. We took advantage of those three days to get as much accomplished as possible, knowing that Thursday would be a chaotic day. I awoke on Thursday with hands that were swollen and stiff. The cold, damp air we have been experiencing has been reaking havoc on my hands and wouldn't you know it, my job at the open house was to play piano for entertainment! There was no way these hands could play a chromatic run to save my life! This ruled out a few piano pieces I had picked for the occasion and luckily Connie Swanson and I were switching off every half hour. I got through the day, but after the third "set" my hands were puffy and pink and had my co-workers wondering if I would be able to work at all on Friday. Upon getting home that evening, I washed my face, got my jammies on, smeared Ben-Gay on my hands, took Ibupforen and put on my wrist splints and climbed in bed to watch some TV at 7:30. By 9:00 I had drifted off to dreamland. The weekend brought a bridal shower at church. Amanda Thill will be getting married in August and I am playing for her wedding so used this opportunity to practice with her cantor and to pin her down on some music choices. The shower was beautiful and Amanda was just thrilled at the attendance and the great gifts. We also got her music planned except for her responsorial psalm and the song she wants to be sung while the parents are escorted in. So I can safely say, mission accomplished. Mike and Reed mentioned wanting to see the movie "The Three Stooges" sometime this weekend so once I got home from the shower, we looked up the playing times and headed to Mason City. The movie was kind of corny but funny -- being the Three Stooges had lots of physical humor of course. Reed, along with a lot of the guys in the theater, really got some good belly laughs out of the movie. After the movie, we stopped for supper at The Other Place for pizza. It rained all the way home. Yuck! Hopefully the rain will stop long enough for the farmers to get those crops in. It's getting to be that time! Mike had hoped to start sometime this week but we'll just have to see about that.