Time to Get Outta Dodge!

I’m glad I decided to stay another day – and I certainly knew that I would be!   Unhappily, though, our Girls’ Day has undergone some changes.   Amy, who is an ICU nurse, just found out that the patient she spent all day with yesterday has tested positive for Covid-19.   She won’t know for a while what her status is, and she is self-quarantining until she finds out.     While we’re digesting this information, Ginger and I have leftover Thai for brunch.   Elizabeth is still up for meeting by her community pool;   but the weather is kind of “iffy”.   We decide, instead, to have her come to us and we spend the afternoon working on a jigsaw puzzle of a photo of a stack of quilts (what else?) that Ginger had picked up in Paducah.   It’s just hard enough and the three of us have a blast, chatting and puzzling and having tea and almond log from Pella.                                                                               Hard-core puzzling!   The time flies and Elizabeth has to get hom

There’s a flurry of emails and phone calls about today’s Board Retreat and the upshot is that it will be a virtual experience.   That means there isn’t so much pressure to have everything cleaned up and put away. Yay!   We have time to watch Emerson’s service with Rev. Deborah and to check in with Spirit of Life, although there isn’t time to watch the service before things have to happen around here!   We have delectable leftovers for brunch and then Ginger is off to her retreat.   I finish editing the photos from last night so that I can take them with me to visit Ben and Elizabeth and see their new house.   My car is blocked in so I go downstairs to ask Andy to move the Civic and it occurs to me that he might want to come too, and he does!     The new house in perfect!  It’s beautiful and the layout is practical; there is lots of storage, the closets are spacious, the kitchen is enormous, yet inviting, and the back yard feels good without requiring more than a half hour to mow!      

Tonight is the It’s-Not-a-Wedding-Dinner Dinner, so there are preparations to be made.   There are tables to be placed socially distant and outdoor chairs to be power washed and lots of food prep to be done.   (This may require some explanation.   Ben and Elizabeth are actually married.   They had a very simple ceremony at the beginning of the pandemic so that she would have health insurance.   Everyone assumed that they would be able to have the big “official” ceremony in August!)                                        Ginger's inaugural cuppa from her brand new Delft teapot!   Randy brings over his sous vide immersion cooker since there will be both filet mignon and rib-eyes and there needs to be two stations to accommodate all that meat!   He also brings over all the meat and cheese and candied pecans and olives for the charcuterie plates he ha planned.   There are potatoes to be washed for the mashed potatoes and Brussel sprouts to be washed and halved and scallops to be placed