I'm Back

I've just got back from a long weekend spent with my friend, Rattus, and his friend, Aaron at the Abbey of Gethsemani in rural Kentucky. I'm still digesting everything, but suffice to say that it was wonderful. Among the many things I've learned are the following little nuggets (in no particular order):

• 3:15A is a splendid time for worship, if I can go back to sleep afterward
• I need another hiking hat
• Sandals do not make good hiking shoes on steep, rocky, muddy, narrow paths
• My belt is not currently optional with the pants I own
• Tick repellant bug spray and a backpack would have been appropriate gear to have packed
• The monks' vegetable stew left something to be desired
• The monks' cabbage soup was good in the mouth but explosive in the belly
• You just never know when you're going to bump into friends
• Hanging with Jim and Joyce is a fun way to spend a couple of hours (yes Jeem and Elizabeth, THAT Jim and Joyce)
• Rich Pinkerton is still the best organist I've ever listened to (with no disrespect intended to all the other organists I've known, met, or listened to)
• Not talking is hard even for a confirmed introvert like me
• Singing psalms can be a tremendously moving experience
• I could be a monk for a week, maybe a month, perhaps a year, but I couldn't stick with it because I love and miss Amy too much
• The Abbey of Gethsemani is a place to which I want to return
• God has a way of making his points...
• ... even if I don't understand them yet...

More later, once I've digested things a bit more.

Ahhh- isn't the kiddo cute?

I just wanted to be the proud mama and show off pictures! The Ultrasound Technician and the Doctor said everything looks fine.

Six Things I Loved About Today

1. I stayed up until after midnight this morning. I'm a night owl by nature, and it's not often that I get to stay up late without consequences.
2. I slept in until almost 10AM WITHOUT BEING INTERRUPTED BY CATS!!! That nearly never happens!
3. Amy and I went caching today, and it was super-duper, extra special fun. One of our long-term goals is to find a cache in each of Ohio's 88 counties, and today we picked up six new counties. That in and of itself is fun, but as we've said before, caching is just such a fun adventure. You just never know what you're going to find. Today, we drove through parts of Ohio that we've never seen before. There's some absolutely beautiful country side out there just waiting to be explored. Plus, there's just plain odd stuff out there. See that picture over there at the left? That's a huge scoop once used for mining coal. And that little blue spec with the light glinting off the top? That's me standing in it. Way, way cool!
4. This conversation I had with my good friend, Xabu:
   • BMT: Hey Xabu!
   • Xabu: Hey!
   • BMT: I got a strange question for you...
   • Xabu: I'm good at answering strange questions.
   • BMT: There's a pizza place in Zanesville.
   • Xabu: Yeah...
   • BMT: What's it's name?
   • Xabu: Adornetto's.
   Now, there's gotta be 50 pizza places in Zanesville, but he comes up with the exact one I'm thinking of without a second thought!
5. The pizza from Adornetto's. If you ever blow through Zanesville, you should stop and give it a try.
6. I spent this entire day with the love of my life :)

Happy Birthday

Our cats were 9months old when we adopted them. We really don't know when their birthday "day " is but we know it is sometime in July, and July 4th is an easy date to remember. So Happy 3rd birthday Kona and Sidamo, thank you for bringing joy to our house.