Busy Week

Random dots of the week that was:

• great Book Group on Monday - I so enjoy this group and their wise and witty conversations!
• spent two and a half days up at ShrineMont for the Bishop's clergy conference. Interesting presentations (Frank Wade was particularly awesome), beautiful weather, Southern cooking, worship at the Shrine. Plus my husband was with me, celebrating his birthday in secret!
• good visits and conversation with a bunch of dear folks. I do love my work.
  
• one of my parishioners was named the county's "Teacher of the Year." She deserves it and then some! Go GW!
  
• a clean house, because we had some friends over for dinner last night. Menu was grilled pizza, green salad, French potato salad, grilled spice-rubbed flank steak, and a Texas cake (in the shape of Texas, not the flavor of Texas). It's a long story, involving a Groom's Cake to be made in the not-too-distant future. Yes, Hannah, the cake did release from the pan very nicely. Last night's version was white chocolate ganache frosting, almond cake, raspberry Bavarian filling.
  
• a trip to NoVA this evening for a retirement party. A long trip but this friend is worth it. There are frozen gougeres (cheese puffs) in the freezer that will go with us for the festivities.
• the sermon is written, the Adult Forum (first in a series about different faith traditions - tomorrow is Judaism) is done, and the house is still reasonably clean, even after last night's dinner party.
• StrongOpinions has only two more exams to go. Graduating from Columbia May 18th. TBTG!

Remembering my mother, a deeply complex and wonderful person. We loved each other fiercely. We occasionally clashed, also fiercely. She is as missed today as she was in 1997, when she passed. She was a hard-core Republican, and there has been some speculation that she timed her passing so that her friends wouldn't be able to watch Bill Clinton's 2nd Inaugural on television. Personally, I think she was just tired of winter cold and wanted to decamp to somewhere more temperate, and Heaven was less expensive than Boca Raton.