It is a beautiful red sunrise this morning, which means, unfortunately, that it's pretty cloudy. I just got up, which is good in a lot of ways. One is, Ray is downstairs, starting a fire for us and turning up the heat in the meantime.

Yesterday, we went to pilates class. Becky joined us, which was fun. I frosted the cupcakes and made some more--gingerbread, with lemon frosting. I was not that good at frosting them, I need Amelia. I think I am taking cupcakes off the list of things I like and am good at. Although having a real oven might be helpful. We had a light lunch and we didn't need to cook supper, so I was a little at loose ends. It was pretty cold out, about 40, but I picked a cabbage and some lettuce for my Dad, who asked for them. I let the chickens out for most of the afternoon. The cold doesn't seem to bother them, but they really want to be out.

I finally spent a couple hours entering money spent into quicken, so that I can clear up the mountain of receipts by my computer. I was pleased with myself for being so constructive, although it is hard to see the progress. The alternative is just to file them away (or throw them away) and not have a good record of where we spent our money. I also got to listen to music.

At 6, we went to pick up my parents and headed to Deb's birthday party (60th). It was pretty fun. We knew almost everyone. One fun thing is her sister Patty drove down from Charlotte. I have heard about Patty a lot (it can be confusing) and it was great to meet her. One man I had met before (Karen S.'s boyfriend Steve) annoyed me by insisting that teachers should carry guns. I asked him not to talk about it and when he continued, I left the room. Later in the night, when we passed, he said "guns" to me. I wonder what he would have thought if I had punched him in the nose. I don't think it's something to joke about.

We had listened to a little of the Prairie Home Companion joke show in the car on the way over, so Ray had lots of jokes to tell people. He tries not to tell the same ones too many times in my hearing, which is thoughtful. I do get tired of them. Then there was dancing. Really good old music, Motown, Beatles, songs we all knew and had danced to before. It was pretty fun. Deb even got my Dad up dancing, which was sweet and a little scary. He enjoyed it tremendously. It was good exercise; I bet there will be a lot of sore people today. We were home about 11. As Janna pointed out, about when our children would just be heading out for the evening. I woke up at 5 with a headache (surely not from one glass of wine?) and took a pain reliever, so I slept another couple of hours, which was good.