Pasta Primo!

Last night I wrote about coming home with no desire for either of us to cook dinner. Tonight was no different for Kay, but I was truly inspired to put on the chef's hat and go to choppin'! I was in an Italian kind of mood, so after heading to Albertson's for a bottle of Chianti, some fresh basil and Parmesan I turned the Albrecht abode on 54th Lane into La Cucina. It was probably 6 months ago that I offered my secret pasta sauce recipe to the followers of this blog, with a few takers. I have to say, and it is with great humility, that tonight's was the best ever! I am not sure that I can share the secrets of my success on this one...maybe...but then again...maybe not.

All of this came about after another busy day on the job of trying to convince people who constantly make a mess out of everything (that would be all of us) that there is a God who loves us and wants us to live forever in his presence. He even made a way for us to do that by sacrificing his Son to pay the penalty that we deserve. I must admit that most of what I did today was behind the scenes work, but it should come to fruition by this coming Sunday. Stop by if you are in the neighborhood, we have services at 7:00 and 10:00am. Part of the preparation for the rest of the week was in programming the lights in the church for our Good Friday service of darkness (Tennebrae). It is kind of an oxymoron to talk about programming lights for a service of darkness, but you will understand if you drop in Friday evening at 7:00pm. Have I done enough shameless promotion yet?

Today's weather had the feel of early spring to it. We started the day with sun, which quickly gave way to clouds. This afternoon we had a few showers of graupel (that's snow pellets for the meteorologically challenged) followed very quickly once again by the return of the sun. This will be pretty much the way of the rest of the week. As we get into April the weather tends to be frustrating, as we want the warm and sunny days but usually end up with cool, cloudy and wet conditions. Oh well...June and July are not that far away.

Pizza, Pizza

After a long day for both of us...Kay and I...which involved erratic play on the tennis court, lots of work, and in Kay's case, a kitchen cabinet door at the church that came off its hinges and nearly took her head off, we were in no mood to cook dinner. The obvious choice was to get in the car and head for Bennedito's Pizza! In my mind its the best gourmet pizza in town. Its nowhere near as good as Zelda's in Sacramento (you should go there if you ever find yourself in California's capitol city), but I only know of one place that is, and that is in Naples, Italy! Anyway, we ordered to small pizza's and the Monday night special "bucket of beer". The pizza selections were the "High Drive" and the "Classico". Both were excellent. Now we are at home ready to bed town for the night in order to gear up for another day tomorrow.

We got quite a lot of rain in the past 24 hours, about 2 thirds of an inch, and it is looking rather cool and showery through the rest of the week and all the way through the weekend. I don't see that we will be having as much rain as what we got last night and today, it should just be rather damp with occasional spits and sprinkles. High temperatures will only be around 50 through the week, give or take a degree or two (I would prefer to take), and lows will be in the low to mid 30s. As we only have two days left to go in March, and the old adage is "in like a lamb out like a lion" or vice versa, I expect that the month will be going out kind of like a platypus...rather wet and not very good looking, since March came in like an aardvark.

Give The People What They Want!

In the unending effort to keep the readers of this blog happy, and in the absence of my 4 year old neighbor Brady, I bring you another batch of 4 year olds...our God Children Isaiah, Erik and Chloe. Today we celebrated their 4th birthday...cubed, as these three little ones are triplets. Erik is the red haired guy, Isaiah has brown hair, and Chloe...well Chloe is the princess! It was about 3 and a half years ago, as we drove through Fargo, North Dakota (that is a whole 'nother story) that our friends Dan and Neilene (pronounced Nahhhhh-leeeennnn...think like a Texan!) told us that they were going to be adopting triplet babies from a rather distant relative. As you can see, they are growing into quite a little group. The two boys form a very effective two man wrecking crew, while Chloe looks on, nodding her disapproval.

You may be wondering about the giant tennis ball pictured at the top of the page. Well...as Nahhhhh-leeeennnn was shopping for birthday presents she came across this behemoth at Walmart, and just had to get it for Kay. She seems to believe that Kay has a difficult time hitting the regular sized ball...pictured on the right, so the larger version might offer a better chance at success. I know that it will draw more than a few laughs on the tennis court tomorrow morning, and it will be a real hoot watching Lucy, Brady's black lab, trying to run it down and bring it back once they all return from Boise.

A quick note on our church service this morning. I was thinking that if we had more than 100 people it would be a good turn out. Last week, for our initial service in the new church, we had 152. Our attendance totaled 125 so it was a real joy once again. There was a page and a half of visitors that signed our guest book. Next week, being Easter, will no doubt bring us a lot more guests. God is most certainly good and gracious in the gifts that he is giving to us, and it is so amazing to step back and watch what he is doing!

Ferris Beuhler's Day Off

For the first time in I don't know how many weeks I actually took a day off today. Not from life, just from work...I did not set foot in the church at all today! On one's day off the usual pattern is to sleep in, but that didn't happen. I kept waking up all night with the choir songs for the next week and a half bouncing around my brain, and that led to an early rise before 7:00am. This morning's tennis extravaganza wasn't scheduled to take place until 9:30am, so that gave me plenty of time to produce a breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausage patties and toast. In spite of the feast, and grossly overeating, my tennis experience was a good one. It is aways a barrel of laughs when my posse gets together on the court, and most of the laughs are directed at my somewhat erratic style of play. I didn't embarrass myself too badly, and no one got hurt, so all in all, it was a good experience. I can't be sure, but I think that at one point I did get an extended middle finger pointed in my direction from my buddy John after a serve that had just a slight bit of spin imparted on it...John claims that he was just scratching his nose!

Over the course of the past few weeks I have been getting some feedback from followers...one in particular...that I need to be writing less information about me, and more about my little buddy Brady. I must admit that...I feel your pain! Brady, my 4 year old neighbor, leads a much more interesting life than I, and makes for much more interesting blogging. The problem is that we live way to close to the Canadian border, and therefore are shut up in our igloos for far too much of the year. It is now almost time to emerge from hibernation, so Brady will be back in the headlines soon...not this week though, as he and his family are headed down to Boise to visit grandpa and grandma.

Let's Try This Again

Late this afternoon I am back out on the basketball court again, for my final regularly scheduled game of the season. I will be hitting the road to Freeman Middle School, as they take on a yet unidentified opponent in a 7th grade girls game. In light of Tuesday's debacle, my partner is of the utmost concern. Fear not, for I have worked with this fellow before, and he is not as old as dirt, and whistle happy, so today should turn out much better. Now the quality of play in a 7th grade girls game in a small rural school may be somewhat in question.

The week continues to roll along with very little of anything that makes for good blogging. I could talk about the weather, but I have done that for over 30 years, and besides, it is just kind of cloudy and cool today (yesterday was very nice). The teams that I normally follow in the NCAA basketball tournament are both out, so there isn't a whole lot of interest there. With the church construction project pretty much complete there are no new and exciting pictures to post. A few of our members did get some shots during the service this past Sunday (I was rather busy and couldn't take any on my camera), but I have yet to get any of them e-mailed to me to include in this space. Hmmm...what to do? Maybe I'll take a nap. No, that's on the schedule for tomorrow.

Stop The World, I Want To Get Off!

I passed another birthday a week ago, and I find that I want to savor what little life that I may have left. I'm almost 80 you know...less than 26 years to go! Anyway, why does it have to be that as we get older the time continues to accelerate? Everyday there is more to do and less time to do it! It seems like Sunday ended just a couple of hours ago and now it is almost Wednesday again.

I am not going to bore you with the details of yesterday and today...Oh...maybe I will. To tell you the truth I am having a hard time remembering yesterday, and parts of today I would like to forget. The forgettable part was refereeing an 8th grade boys basketball game today at Sacajawea Middle School against Shaw Middle. I swear that my partner must have been there to greet Noah as walked down the gangplank from the ark. He seemed like a nice enough guy, but I had no clue what he was calling each time that he blew his whistle, which he did very early in the game and very often. Within the first two minutes he made about 5 traveling calls that defied understanding. Can you guess the reaction of the coaches? From there things got progressively worse, making for a difficult late afternoon. The game turned out to be quite the dogfight, and went into overtime. That prolonged the agony. In the end the home team won, mostly because they could shoot free throws better, and boy oh boy, there were a lot of them! All of that is now in the rear view mirror, and I hope that better days are ahead. The middle school basketball season comes to an end this week, so I won't have to deal with that much longer. Most of the time its great, but now and then a "creative' partner makes things a little more challenging. I think that I will spend the summer training my little buddy Brady how to blow a whistle and call technical fouls!

Tomorrow is Wednesday, and it is the final Wednesday in the season of Lent. That means one more Lenten service. We'll have a decent group again...about 45 to 50...but in a new church that seats about 225 it will look much smaller. Being a Lutheran Church I imagine that everyone will be spread widely in the back two rows of the sanctuary. Maybe I'll fool them and conduct the entire service from the back.

Wow...What A Day!

It is 9:00pm on Sunday and my head is still spinning. What a day it has been. We opened the doors on our new church this morning and a whole bunch of people came rolling in. Over the past few months we have averaged about 85 to 90 people each Sunday, but today we had more that 150! I like to say that the room was comfortably full. We had folks sitting in every pew, but we all had enough elbow room to be very comfy. I must admit that I was a bit nervous before and during the service today, and I am still wound up this evening. There were lots of smiling faces and good comments that came out of today's worship, but we will have to wait and see if we really made a lasting impact on those who came to see what we are all about at St. John's.

After the service, and the Bible class that followed, I donned my striped shirt and was off to officiate games at the Dan Fitzgerald Basketball Camp this afternoon. Fitz, the former coach of the Gonzaga Bulldogs, passed away very suddenly a couple of months ago due to a massive heart attack. He was only 67 years old. The camp, and his love for the kids and the game continues on though, and probably will for many years to come. It is always fun to work these games as the coaches are there to coach the kids, and not to constantly scream at the officials!

When I got home I was met by my buddy Brady from across the street. Brady is now almost 4 years old, but in spite of his advancing age has not lost his boyish enthusiasm for life. After a long winter of being penned up in our own homes Brady came over for a tour of our house, and got reacquainted with Kay and Dixie. A little later on Kay and I stopped over at his house for a short time. Brady and I spent some quality time comparing shoe sizes. He wanted me to try on his shoes...yeah, good luck with that! Then it was time to play "hide & seek". Brady was more than happy to do the hiding, which consisted of him continually crawling under the dining room table. After several rounds I suggested that he might try a different site in which to hide, but he was quite content with his spot under the table. I guess he is a kid after my own heart as I have spent some time in the past under the table as well. Anyway, it was fun to reconnect with my little buddy, and I am looking forward to warm summer evenings on the porch with Brady discussing the possible presence of snakes and identifying the pilot of all of the airplanes that fly over our neighborhood.

This Is It!

Today is the day...the first worship service in the new church! Lots to do...a full report coming this evening.

Why? Oh, Why?

Its just not fair! On a Saturday morning, when you don't really have to get up and go anywhere at any particular time, there ought to be a universal law against one's eyes popping open at 4:45am and refusing to close again. After fighting the inevitable for about 45 minutes it was time to rise and (cough...cough) shine. Eventually there will be plenty to do today, but not for a few more hours.

Anyway...now that I am up, the sun is finally getting its act together and rising over the eastern horizon. It is quite brisk this morning, but will be nice by this afternoon. Today's temperatures should rise to near 60 degrees. Tomorrow is looking cloudier with a few sprinkles by the end of the day. It should still be fairly mild, in the mid to upper 50s. Speaking of tomorrow, I believe that I have mentioned that we will be celebrating the first worship service in the new church, beginning promptly at 9:30am. What begins promptly at 9:10am PDT is the Gonzaga vs. Syracuse game in the NCAA tournament. Again, there ought to be a universal law against such things. I look forward to cheers and groans in the sermon tomorrow, totally unrelated to its message, as folks monitor their I-Phones and Droids. That's if anyone shows up!

We're Open!!!

Having our temporary occupancy permit in hand, St. John's Lutheran Church is hosting its first public event today, the Eagle Ridge "Let's Connect". The developer has created an intranet system for the community, and they are using our fellowship area for introduction and training for their residents. So far, traffic has been...shall we say...slow, but we are hoping that it will pick up this evening and tomorrow.

Of course the focus of the weekend will be our church service on Sunday morning...note the time change...9:30am. This has all been a long time coming, although in the grand scheme of things the construction process took only about 9 and a half months, which is about as long as it takes to bring a baby into this world. This is an awfully big baby!

Lookin' Good!

We are off to a sunny start to the day today, so the weather is looking good, and as I sit here in the middle of our huge new fellowship hall at the church the interior of the building is looking good. That's important because today marks the first "official" event. Our neighbors, the Eagle Ridge community, are rolling out a new intranet site for their residents, and they are doing introductory sessions and training in our new facility today and tomorrow. There could be as many as 500 people from the "hood" heading through our doors for the first time, and that gives us the opportunity to meet them and give them information about who we are, what we are doing and what we believe. That is a wonderful marketing opportunity...having people delivered right to your door to see what you have to offer them.

As I mentioned before, we will be having our first worship service in the new church this Sunday at 9:30am...y'all come! Some of the bells and whistles are still yet to be installed, but it looks absolutely fantastic anyway. We are hoping for a big crowd, but we will save a seat for you.

Another note about the weather...today will be sunny with temperatures into the mid to upper 50s, and tomorrow sunny and low 60s. A little rain will probably be coming Sunday afternoon. I hope it holds off as this is going to be a "grillin' weekend"!

Finally, its NCAA tournament time. Bucky Badger plays just about noon our time, against the Wofford Terriers. A badger duking it out with a terrier...I think I know where I would place my bet, but with the way yesterday went, who knows for sure? GO BADGERS!

Why Do I Feel Old?

A better question might be; why am I up before 6:00am on my birthday? Yes...today is the big day...Big Deal! Anyway, yesterday I mentioned that today I would be making a major announcement. My birthday ain't it! The announcement is that this Sunday, March 21st, will mark the first worship service in our brand spankin' new church. Woo Hoo! The festivities will begin promptly at 9:30am, with a praise celebration service, then our Bible study and Sunday School classes at 10:45am. As always, there will be gallons of free coffee and lots of goodies, so come on out and join us...we'll save you a seat! The only downside is that you will have to listen to me speak.

And now, the weather. Yesterday was beautiful! The official high temperature was 64 degrees. That was out at the airport. In town it was closer to 70. Fantastic. We had a few drips of rain late last evening, but this morning the sun is rising, or is about to rise, into a clear blue sky. The next few days will be mostly sunny, with daytime temperatures getting up into the low to mid 50s, and overnight lows near freezing. The nice weather is set to last through the weekend, and by Sunday we should be back up near 60 again.

One final note...for those who have gotten me extravagant gifts for my birthday...a big thank you. For those who have not...there is still time!

A Sign Of Things To Come?

Could this be an omen...a harbinger (I love that word) of things to come? I woke up early this morning, too much on my mind and my plate this week, and trudged off to the shower. That was pretty uneventful, but in shaving shortly there after I managed to slice of a good portion of the lower lip on the right side of the face. The blood flow is something akin to the Big Thompson Canyon flood of 1976, and it just doesn't want to be stemmed. I certainly hope that this is not a foreshadowing of how the whole day will go!

The weather is good this morning, and will be great all day. We are headed for 60 degrees or higher this afternoon under a partly sunny sky. The rain will be back later on tonight, and it looks a bit showery through Wednesday and Thursday, and a bit cooler too. It won't be bad...just not as nice as today.

Look for a major announcement in this space tomorrow!

Let's Dance

The brackets are out, and the match ups are set. The two most important games of the first round of the NCAA basketball tournament are Gonzaga versus Florida State and, of course, Wisconsin versus Wofford. What the heck is a Wofford? Well, Wofford is a school from Spartenburg, South Carolina and their mascot is a terrier. In a street fight I would definitely pick a Badger to kick a Terrier's butt just about any day of the week. In last year's tournament Wisconsin beat Florida State in the first round, so I would expect the Zags to do the same. Any way that you look at it...March Madness is upon is and the fun will begin this Thursday!

I'm sure that I will have much more to write about all of this as the week goes on, and I will also have a major announcement regarding St. John's Lutheran Church coming up in the next few days. Stay tuned!

Ouch!!!

Let me begin with a word of advice...when booking a flight for one's sweet babboo (that means daughter) to go back to school from spring break you really should check the calendar to see when Daylight Saving Time begins. Beth had a 6:15am flight out this morning, meaning that we had to get up at 4:45am to get her to the airport. Minus the hour that we lost overnight, that makes it in reality 3:45am...which is just plain disgusting on a Sunday morning. If I fall asleep during the sermon this morning I urge everyone to not try to wake me...even though I will be the one speaking!

As I look out the window this morning there is daylight, finally, and it is a frosty one. The sky is clear and should stay that way all day. Temperatures will be soon rising from the 20s, heading for the low 50s. Tomorrow we should be sunny and close to 60 degrees, and then into the low 60s with a partly sunny sky on Tuesday. Rain will be returning by Wednesday morning...that's St. Patrick's Day...with temperatures dropping back about 10 degrees. The end of the week is looking mainly cloudy and damp with typical mid March temperatures. That means highs near 50 with lows in the 30s.

It Snowed Last Night!

What was a rainy evening turned briefly into a snowy night, but those rising this morning after about 8:00am would never know it. The only way that I became aware of it was looking out the window as the dawn commenced...we had the window open just a bit and the curtain was pulled back. It wasn't much, but there was a thin covering of white on the grass and various and sundry other objects. In most cases this would not be a big deal, but in this winterless winter it does get a mention, even though the evidence has already been cleaned up.

Speaking of clean up...we are headed down to the new church building to give a bath, and towel it off. This will probably be the last of the big cleaning parties before the great unveiling...whenever that might be. I'll keep you posted!

Just Add People

These pictures are from this afternoon. The building project is just about complete, and we have our temporary occupancy permit in hand. Now all that is left is for us to add in the people to make the pictures complete. That will come soon, probably next Sunday...at least I hope so. A bunch of us will be there tomorrow morning to do some cleaning. Things need to be dusted, vacuumed and mopped to clean out all of the gunk that builds up over the course of a construction project. If you want to join us we will commence cleaning at 9:30am.

Settling Down

The rough part of the week is now in the rear view mirror, and the slide into weekend mode has begun. It began last evening, and is currently accelerating at an exponential rate. I will be stumbling around the tennis court this morning, and having a couple of brief meetings involving church related business this afternoon, but that's about all that is on the plate for today. Oh, I do have to drop Beth off at her former high school...Gonzaga Prep. I don't know if I mentioned (actually I don't remember if I did. That happens as you get old. I'm just a few days short of 28 years away from my 80th birthday!) it earlier, but Beth has been home all week for spring break. She has been spending a lot of time just hanging out...enjoying her personal space...and has been very pleasant to have around, at least most of the time. Today she is going "old school" to visit with friends who are still imprisoned there.

There is a little bit of sun shining this morning, and it is rather breezy and mild. We are already in the mid 40s, and should reach the mid 50s before the rain reaches us later this afternoon. The weekend will be drier again, with some sunshine both tomorrow and Sunday. Highs tomorrow will be in the upper 40s, and the low 50s on Sunday. Early next week we are headed for 60 degrees! I see where you folks who are reading from the upper Midwest, Wisconsin and Minnesota, are enjoying some mild weather and the melting of the snow. Welcome to the weather that we have had pretty much all winter long.

Bring It On!

I'll be relieved when this day is over...it has been a ridiculously busy last few. It all culminates in meetings that we are hosting for the circuit pastors and other workers in ministry around the Spokane area. I will be leading the worship service this morning, and making a presentation this afternoon. Following it all I will be out on the basketball court again at 4:00 this afternoon. Once all of this is in the rear view mirror it will be smooth sailing into the weekend.

The weather is going to be taking a turn toward the wetter as the day wears on. Some rain will be around be afternoon into the evening, and then more will be coming in tomorrow. It is chilly now, and will only be in the 40s today, but tomorrow we should climb into the middle 50s. By the early part of next week we should be back up near 60 degrees once again...gotta run!

Picture This!

We're almost there! The church construction process in the home stretch, and we are going through inspections to get a temporary occupancy permit. In that we are dealing with the city, who knows how long that will take! All of the carpet and tile is down, the lights are one, and the furnaces...well...they work part of the time. The organ is installed but cannot be tuned until the heating system gets a little less cranky, and a constant temperature can be maintained. I have included a picture of our current "church home", one of the classrooms in the education wing. It is serving us well and allows a little more elbow room than up in the "house church". The seating capacity is about 70...we could jam a few more in if we need to. The seating in the new sanctuary will be a little over 200, so there should be lots of elbow room. We're Lutherans you know, so we all want to sit in the back and have plenty of space between us! I'm in the middle of preparing for tomorrow evening's Lenten Service, and then a special worship service on Thursday as St. John's is hosting the monthly circuit pastor's meeting. There is always a communion service in the morning, and I will be leading the liturgy and presenting the day's message. It is a little unnerving to have to preach in front of a bunch of preachers...most of whom are older than dirt. Well, maybe not that old, but they have been around the block and down the street a few times. The main theme is going to be "Why are Lutherans so grumpy?" I don't have an answer for that yet...maybe we're all born that way. If you can help...please let me know, SOON! Anyway, the object lesson is this one German Lutheran that I know that loves his wife so much that at one time he almost told her! If the sermon goes well, I can use it again for our regular service on Sunday. There won't be a bunch of preachers around, but there will be a lot of folks who are older than dirt, and I mean that in the nicest way possible.

Snow...Oh No!

Some things never change. After a beautiful weekend all of the local weatherfolk, TV and radio, are talking about this horrible stretch of weather that we will be facing, and the impending doom due to the return of SNOW! Its raining a little bit right now. Yeah, there is probably going to be a little snow that falls late Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. Is it going to be a big deal? Hardly! There might be enough to cover the ground with a little dust, but hey, isn't this the month of March, with an average snowfall of just over 4 inches? Shouldn't we still expect a little snow to fall? Anyway, today is looking rather cool and showery, especially by comparison to the last several days. Colder air will be pouring in tonight through Wednesday. Instead of highs in the 50s to near 60 today we will stay in the 40s, and tomorrow probably just the upper 30s. Something to look forward to...we should be back in the 50s by Friday.

Back In The Saddle

After a couple of days of R & R, or in the case of Walla Walla...W & W, I am back at it once again. Actually, I got back at it yesterday. On Saturday we made the drive back, it was another beautiful sunny day. We picked up the dog from her temporary accommodations, thanks to Gary & Bonnie. We picked up our lovely daughter from the airport, she has returned home for spring break. And, I managed to get in a little prep work for some of the events coming up next week at the church.

The weather today is looking beautiful once again. The sun is shining right now, and will be for most of the day. Later this afternoon the temperatures will be in the mid to upper 50s, although it is a little nippy at the moment. Rain will be coming in tomorrow and there may even be a little snow by Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. Snow? What's that? I only said a little, and whatever might come down will melt away quickly, so no need to panic.

Walla World!

We have been in Walla Walla for the past 30 hours, and it has been a wonderful adventure. The wine tasting is the big draw, but our adventures around the city may have been the better part of the trip. We probably walked more than 5 miles today...looking at the ancient downtown buildings and the historic homes...then did the wine thing in the mid to late afternoon. One of the more famous wineries in the area is L'Ecole #41. You can see Kay standing outside the tasting room, next to the bell. She went in...I stayed outside ringing the bell for about 3 and a half hours. We are lodged at the Marcus Whitman Hotel in downtown Walla Walla, and had an interesting dinner next door at the Whitehouse-Crawford Restaurant. Our experience included calamari, gnocchi, duck and polenta. It wasn't cheap, but may have been the best meal that we have had...outside of Kay's cooking...in many years. Walla Walla may not be a big city, but it has its finer points. We are going home tomorrow to pick up the dog, and then pick up Beth at the airport as she comes home for spring break.

Road Trip

Today we headed off on a little trip out of Spokane, for a couple of days of R & R. After dropping of the dog at here hotel we headed out of the city toward the south, across something called "the Palouse". Palouse is a French word for "really not much out there, just a lot of wheat fields and not many trees". Our first stop of the day was my hometown...at least, my adopted hometown. La Crosse, Washington is a lot smaller than La Crosse, Wisconsin but to me it looked like the same people live there. Our next stop was at the Palouse Falls State Park. As you can see from the pictures it is really a great place, but since it is out where there is "really not much out there, just a lot of wheat fields and not many trees" there aren't many people that get to see it...mostly just marmots, and they have gotten very good at posing for pictures. After the falls we headed for our final destination. I am not going to tell you where that is until tomorrow...the suspense is going to kill you, but that's okay. I'll give you a hint...its a place known for something sweet that will make you cry.

A Little Dampness

There is a little bit of rain on the way for this morning, but after that it appears as if the weather is going to be turning back toward the better again. A wave of low pressure off of the Pacific will be rolling through today, and a check of the radar shows that there are showers just of to our southwest, and they are heading this way. One the system passes by though we will be in for drier weather again beginning tomorrow and lasting through the weekend. After a cloudy and damp day today we will probably begin with fog tomorrow before the sun burns through it for the afternoon. Friday Saturday and Sunday are shaping up to be rather sunny and mild days. Today's temperatures will most likely come up a bit short of 50, due to the gray skies and wet weather. Highs for tomorrow will be in the low 50s, and low to mid 50s are anticipated through the weekend. I know most of the country is still firmly in the grips of winter but it is surely (Shirley?) spring here...thank you very much Shirley. The grass in the backyard is greening up and some of the early spring perennials are already emerging from the ground!

Just Rolling Along

There is not a lot to say about today. There was plenty to do, and plenty got done, but not much of it was all that exciting! The Olympics are now long since over so we are not watching endless hours of curling, or a hockey match up between Uzbekistan and Malawi, so there is not that much on TV. Since the weather is nice we are starting to see some of the neighbors emerging from hibernation, but it is still way too early, and cool, to think about evenings on the front porch. There is always tomorrow to look forward to. Wednesday in March means soup suppers at church before the evening Lenten service, which will be followed by choir practice. I have a basketball game to officiate in the afternoon, 8th grade boys at Evergreen Middle School in Spokane Valley so that should get me going. The day will start, as usual, out on the tennis court at 8:00am. I look forward to getting my butt kicked once again. It isn't that I don't try real hard to win, it is just that I usually fail so miserably.

That's all I got for tonight...I know...pitiful. If this evening's post doesn't make any sense you can blame my keyboard. You see, it has a drinking problem. While we were copying some photos to a CD earlier tonight I accidentally knocked over a half full glass of beer right onto the keyboard, and it has been behaving quite badly all evening long...rather loud and obnoxious!

60° Today!

What a way to start the week. The sun was shining and the temperature reached 60 degrees in downtown Spokane. Today marks the first day of March. The old adage goes "In like a lamb and out like a lion, or visa versa. If this is going to turn out to be true, at least around here, we are in for a heck of a storm at the end of the month. In reality, there is no reason to think that the weather pattern this month is going to be much different than it has been since the first of the year...very mild. So, we will just wait for another 30 days to see if March goes out like a lion, or an aardvark, or platypus.

The month began out on the tennis court this morning. I couldn't get the guys to play outside, but that's a whole 'nother story. In the first set I was teamed with John. We managed to pull out a win, but I was having a real problem getting my first serve anywhere near the service box. Between our first and second sets, where I would be partnered with Bill, John told me that if I started to get my first serves in he was going to be "really pissed off!" Now John is normally a pretty "happy" guy...as a matter of fact...he is always a "Happy" guy in that he goes by that as his last name. But, if you see him between now and early Wednesday morning, he might just be "really pissed off!" I sure hope that John doesn't have to renew his driver's license before Wednesday at 8:00am.