Sunday Salon, Nov. 3

hello, november!

Weather: Cold and rainy. Yesterday we had a wind storm that shook most of the remaining leaves off the trees. Our neighbors a few blocks away lost power for a few hours. It is November for sure!

Yesterday: Our church hosted a Fair Trade, Global market selling products from organizations that support sustainable products or items made by artisans worldwide who can make a living. A few of the organizations we partnered with: L'Arche Community taking orders to Christmas wreaths and selling plants from their greenhouse; Church of the Indian Fellowship selling jewelry that they make in their traditional methods; Beads for Life-paper beads made into necklaces, earrings, and bracelets; SERRV-all kinds of products; Fair Trade Winds-a store in Seattle that sells many of these products and made a nice display for us, and Equal Exchange coffee, tea and chocolate.

That didn't go as planned: The women's group served soup and pie for a $5 donation at the market. After expenses and the cost of getting a food service permit, I think we made $15. Ha!

Ar Potted Potter, wearing Potter sunglasses

Last evening: We went to see Potted Potter, a play in 70 minutes which sums up all seven of the Harry Potter books. Done by two actors, this has been very popular in England for the past several years and finally made it to Tacoma. It was quite funny.

Pioneer Square, Seattle

Friday evening: I took the Sounder train up to Seattle to meet up with Don for dinner.  He had a meeting in Seattle earlier in the day so we thought we would have dinner in the city before attending our daughter's  first Seattle University Choir concert of the new school year. We wanted to dine in the Pioneer Square area of town but didn't do our homework and weren't able to find a restaurant that looked like what we wanted so we ended up going back toward SU and found a sports bar that fit the bill. The concert was wonderful as usual. Afterwards we brought Carly home with us for the week-end.

School: My school district still has partial server outage so my library OPAC system is still down, counting week-ends that makes 19 days without the ability to check-in any books, or look at any student accounts. It is madness!  Argh!

Books read this week:

• Dog Songs, poems by Mary Oliver is now a favorite poetry book. I've always loved Mary Oliver's poems because I can actually read and understand them. These poems are all about the dogs in her life. I could relate.
• The Lord of Opium by Nancy Farmer. This is the sequel to The House of the Scorpion which was written ten years ago. It is simmering well in my mind. At first I didn't think I cared for it but as the week as progressed I keep thinking about it and decided that I like it better after giving it time to percolate. Look for my review soon.

Currently reading:

• The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater. This is my current audiobook selection. The second book in the Raven Cycle series (Raven Boys). This is like candy I love listening to it so much.
• The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes. This is the book club selection this month.
• In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters.  I am still struggling with this book though I have a made a bit of progress this week.

Prayers for friends who are either recovering from a disease/surgery or need a diagnosis for some unknown illness: Sharon, Marty, Phillis, Ed, Twila.

Today's scripture: John 15:17-"This is my command, love one another."

From the kitchen: Beef Stew, cornbread, carrot/apple salad, and pumpkin cream cake made special for son-in-law's birthday dinner. He said he had his taste buds ready for the stew all day! Bless his heart.

Quote: "November always seemed to me the Norway of the year."-   Emily Dickinson