I enjoy waking up the morning after a party and surveying the remains and rememering how much fun it was. I usually am left with a relatively clean and tidy house, although there are still dishes to clear and wash. But I appreciate the work that went into cleaning up beforehand and admire my expanse of counter and mostly bare coffee table.

It was very cold out, but sunny. We had to run the heat for a long while. We had a walk anyway, wearing our warmest scarves and coats. There were two more eggs. One was cracked; it may have frozen. Hooray for chickens that lay eggs!

Ray and I got to the Fellowship just at 11; he was teaching RE. He enjoys young children so much, I wish we lived in a world where that would be considered a good profession for him and would pay appropriately. I attended the service, sitting with other women, knitting, and, I admit, dozing, on the sunny side of the sanctuary. Afterward there was a reception for the mystery friends, of which Ray was one. His mystery friend wasn't there (sad face), but he teamed up with a young man whose adult mystery friend was also missing. There were snacks and games. I sat and knitted with a couple other women, enjoying watching the fun.

Then we had lunch with Deb and John and my Dad at DePalmas, having a really nice time. Captain and John discussed wines and tasted and orrdered a bottle for us. I had chicken soup and a steak salad. We split two delicious desserts among five of us, a Zuppa di Inglese and a chocolate tart with vanilla ice cream.

Ray and I drove home, spent a little time in the house, and then left again. We met Janna and Ron at the movies to watch Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy...At the end of the movie, I felt like I didn't know much more than I did at the beginning...except more people were dead. It was very intense in a reserved British way. Gary Oldman was excellent and so different from other things he's done, like being Zorg in the Fifth Element. I wouldn't have known it was the same person, except for Ray telling me. We saw Kent there, and Mike and Todd (his wife). She had seen it for the second time, and recommended doing that.

After chatting a bit, we drove to the Hotel Indigo and went down to the Rialto Club to listen to the A-Train play jazz. It was $12, which was a bit steep. I have been living a little high on the hog for someone who doesn't earn any money, partly in hopes that I will soon have a source of income--wishful thinking. And it had to be cash. So we went back upstairs to an ATM and paid $4 to get out some money. The band was wonderful and we even danced a few times. There were some really good dancers there, so Ray was only willing to dance when there was a crowd, mostly on ballads, where we did not actuallly put into practice anything we learned in our dance classes. There were plenty of people, the majority older than we are. It was strange to be at an event in Athens where we didn't know anyone. We stayed until 10. I had a drink and ordered dinner upstairs and brought it down. It was pretty good, kabobs with pineapple, mushrooms, peppers, and mashed potato. And steak and chicken.

We came home and went to bed. It is cold again and the heat is running, but it promises to be sunny again, and a little warmer.