It's a little nippy in here this morning (67), so I put the heat on for a minute, until I am awake enough to go down and light the fire. It looks like a beautiful morning. The trees are silhouetted by the glow of the soon-to-be-rising sun. No colors yet, just dark trees and brightening sky.

I am starting to feel vaguely stressed by the upcoming holiday season and people's reactions to it. I have not really done any Christmas shopping and have to send some faraway packages before too long. I feel like I can't really go shopping without my daughters to help me. Molli is arriving Sunday night for a day or two, but I don't think I'll have much time for shopping and she will be pretty tired.

Yesterday I spent 2 hours on the phone, attending a meeting in Atlanta by conference call. If you think board meetings are tedious in person, you should try listening to them. Sometimes the sound quality wasn't good enough to catch everything, but I could hear most of it and I am glad I didn't have to drive there! I was even able to do a little filing and checking email. It was also payroll day and it seemed like there was a lot going on. There was supposed to be a Shelter board meeting last night, but the president was sick and several others couldn't make it, so they postponed the meeting.

I worked on the sewing project a little while Ray made macaroni and cheese. I swore a lot. It is kind of amusing. One of the reasons I haven't made much progress on the shades lately is they are really big. I have an extra dining table in case of really big dinners, with leaves, but it has a bird cage on it. So I can't open it up and spread out my sewing project. And since the four of us sit down to eat every day, I can't use the main dining table very easily. It always has magazines and salt & pepper on it... but that might be better. I tried to put up one of the leaves of the auxiliary table with the bird on it and work there. But the lining is really slippery and there wasn't enough room. It was probably pretty amusing to the impassive spirits of the air, but not me. And who knows what the finished product will be like? I have to wind a new bobbin before I use the sewing machine again. And I have to work on my Arabic homework...and I don't know what to have for supper.

Potluck was very full. Apparently the Membership Committee invited new members to come and meet people there. There were three new members and three members of the committee, but that doesn't entirely explain the big turnout. The time of year? It was very festive. The only sad thing? The only two children were Amber's. Calvin stood up in his chair when Larry was introducing the new members and said, "who is that man?" It was very funny. Calvin is very short, but speaks clearly. I think he's 3.

Now I am starting to see some color, the green and brown of trees and grass, the gray gravel drive, a few yellow leaves, and the orange marigolds in the garden.