Ray and I played R-ball yesterday and I am a little sore this morning. He won both games, but I was ahead 6-1 at one point. I am playing better than I was, naturally. I only hit a few badly that I said I could have done better. Most of the ones I miss are too short or too long or too close to the sides...and we run hard.

I went to the interagency meeting at 8:30 yesterday and heard state legislator Brian Cowsert tell us how dire the economic situation in Georgia is. He knows we are all doing good work that will save money down the road, but they have to cut even more this year. He did give us his phone number and email address and told us to let him know how cuts will affect us. I talked to Sam at HED about ideas for CDBG grants for next year. Brandy and i are meeting with Erin from Our Daily Bread to see about having Job TREC work out of that location at 9 on Monday. And I am meeting with two other people next week about my grant ideas.

Resident M got offended because I told her she couldn't afford luxuries, like a TV and VCR--that's why they are called luxuries. She asked if I could have luxuries. I said yes and she said but I can't?

I was interviewed by 2 UGA students from Womens' Studies, as a woman leader...it was fun. They will be putting it on their blog with a picture.

As I was thinking about leaving, a young woman from Clarke Central showed up. she was wearing a purple and black outfit and had tasteful purple streaks in her hair. i wondered if she changed her hair to match what she was wearing every day--or were all her clothes purple? She was fairly assertive, appropriate for a journalist, and showed me the Odyssey. She told me she wanted to do a piece on homelessness because so many of the high school students were not aware and didn't appreciate what they have. Mr. Ragsdale sent her to interview the families and take pictures. She was pretty well stopped in her tracks when I told her no she couldn't. I said if she and her friends wanted to serve dinner, they could meet people that were staying here and then write something about their experience using fictitious names. And she can interview me and we can make up a composite for the magazine. She is going to talk to him, but I don't think cooking and serving food is one of her interests...

Trip to London

A very sad thing--a friend of Molli's from middle and high school died. The phone rang after 10 Tuesday night, but no one was there by the time Ray got it. Apparently it was Molli calling us. She called Amelia and Amelia called here early yesterday morning to tell me. I guess Molli didn't want me to read it on Facebook, but I haven't been on there much in a while. Now I am avoiding it, not wanting to read what people are saying. Amelia said she heard it might have been suicide. A beautiful, super-intelligent girl, graduated from Barnard a year ago, I never would have said she was headed that way at all. I grieve for her parents and her brother. I can see her face, having fun with friends at our house. Gerald was a friend of hers, too, and called me yesterday morning when he heard about it. I was at work, so we didn't talk long. (2 photos by Gerald)

Work went well, another new family moving in. I worked on a reimbursement request and started tossing around some ideas for the CDBG application due early in December. Taylor and Amanda handled the intake alone, as Kerri is working on her comps. I got a lot of calls, including more from the leasing company, which I hung up on. I did feel useful.

Ray drove himself in and stayed to have dinner with the speaker. So I came on home at 3 to work on supper, my Arabic homework and the window shade. I was a little out of sorts, feeling for Molli. Amelia called from the airplane and talked to the Captain mostly, learning a few German phrases before arriving in Zurich. I didn't ever do the Arabic homework, just couldn't get into it, and left a little late for class.

In addition to Wes and Scott and myself, Shelby arrived later. Zuhair's daughter sat in on the class. She was quite silly and I could imagine his conflict, adoring her, but wanting her to focus and learn her parents' language (she's in 8th grade, I think). I think she may speak it to some degree, but not read or write it. she could hear the differences in sounds that were harder for the rest of us. (h, aspirated or not, etc.) It is so hard. We spent some time reviewing the letters and the sounds they make. There are actually 3 vowels, but most vowel sounds are indicated by marks above or below the line. As there are also marks that are part of the letters, it is very challenging. Even the vowels can have marks on them, which makes no sense from our point of view. I am learning, though. I try not to feel guilty that i don't spend time studying between classes. I would get so much more out of it.

I got home from class before Ray did and ate dessert and watched some TV and worked on my knitting. He enjoyed his meal at the Last Resort.

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.

Steady rain all day yesterday and last night It's still raining. This is apparently the edge of Hurricane Ida. I love the sound of rain while I am snug in my bed or sitting by the fire. The clock was blinking this morning, so I wasn't sure of the time. The power must have gone off briefly, but not long enough for my computer to shut down. It did make it uncomfortable driving and especially going from car to work, work to car, car to restaurant and bank...My parents found it unpleasant to be home all day, although Vanessa did go to yoga this morning. She also baked cookies, which warmed up the house and smelled great. I worked on my Arabic homework while I ate lunch by myself at the National: pumpkin soup and chicken salad. It was yummy but crowded and noisy. I was very close to a table of loud women talking about shallow things, which was mildly annoying.

One of the places the Board insisted on advertising the executive director job is Opportunity Knocks and we had 17 applicants respond there. In order to send them the questions, I have to log on to the site, click on each name, click on their email link, type in the name of the organization, type in a subject, paste the questions, and click send. 17 times. I am not sure how I can get the resumes from the site to send to the board members. Perhaps if they email me the answers to the questions, I can ask them to send their resume again, directly to me. I suppose the idea is to make it hard for them to contact me directly, which I applaud, but in this case it is adding tremendously to my work. Of course, I have many other resumes from other places we advertised.

One of our interns, Amanda, is excellent and seems to be very competent. One of our interns, Taylor, is really nice, but can't seem to focus very well and needs a lot more direction. I keep asking people to do things and they don't get done. I need to keep track of who I asked to do what and follow up. Kerri is off today and tomorrow, working on her comps, so it is up to me and the interns to take care of things. This is complicated by the fact that I keep moving from my office to the Executive Director's office and back. So I try to do the Assistant duties in the morning and switch to Director in the afternoon, but if an email comes in for me on the other computer after noon, I won't see it until this morning. Hopefully, if it's urgent, they'll call.

The President of the Board committed to speaking to a group last night, but she had a stomach bug. I am not sure if she expected me to let them know she wasn't coming and I didn't resolve that yesterday. I sure hope she contacted them.

Anyway, I picked up Ray at 3:40 and we came on home. We ate chicken pot pie from the freezer (one of the things I cooked with Janna). Vanessa made the crust and put it in the oven, so I had an hour or so free. I started working on an insulated shade for their room, but it has been a while and my brain was apparently rusty. I had cut two pieces of lining which had to be sewn together to be big enough for the two windows. I sewed them together, but on the wrong edges. Then I ripped out the stitches and sewed it the right way. In the process, the thread broke repeatedly. I was able to rethread the needle once, but then it broke again. I just can't see well enough to thread the needle. Ray was able to do it for me and eventually I finished my seam. Now I have a piece that is bigger than I need, so I have to cut it. It might have made more sense to cut it before I sewed it!

After our early supper, I headed off to Arabic class, a little late in the dark and rain. There was an accident at Whitehead Road. Cars were backed up. There were flashing lights and people with flashlights showing us how to get past. There was an ambulance and someone on a stretcher being loaded in. So I was really late to Arabic class. I am starting to be able to recognize about half the letters, and some of the sounds they make, but new things are being introduced. Some more marks that go above or below the words to tell us how to pronounce them, mostly what the vowels would sound like. So you get bnt, with marks, that is pronounced benet. Remember it is right to left. Anyway, it seems crazy hard to me, but there is a young woman who is way ahead of me. I will say she took the class before and she is very motivated, but she only comes about half the time (girl scouts, choir...). The most interesting thing to me is the teacher, who seems very stern and unhappy with our progress. Except then he smiles or even giggles about something. I think I will try to make him giggle...

I bought some baklava, but my parents were in their room with the door shut when I got home. I ate a piece, the rest will keep. Ray is trying not to eat dessert and to lose weight in other ways. He walked from my office in the rain yesterday morning.

We woke up late (6:45) to rain--very cozy, but we will need to light a fire today or turn on the heat.

There was a 5:30 meeting about the CDBG application process, so I played racquetball at 3, came home and dressed up, went to the meeting, and had supper when I got back. Lots of people there I know, competing with the Shelter for money, as it were.

Another beautiful day yesterday, quite warm in the middle of the day. I cleared the grass and added wood chips around the rest of the blueberries.

We had a lovely lunch after church, sitting outside at Harry Bissett's on Mitchell Bridge Road: oysters for first course for some of us, Pinot Grigio for all. Vanessa had this incredible bourbon-y French toast (even though we had homemade pancakes for breakfast, she loves her some French toast). I had some yummy shrimp and grits with andouille sausage and a creamy sauce. Ray had spicy barbecued shrimp. Service was very good.

Vanessa and I went to Joann Fabrics and bought some fabric to make a shade for her room. It was drapery fabric on sale for $10/yd--still $50! The lining remnant was only $.50/yd, so I bought it all--about 15 yds. I also picked up filters at Kroger. Ray had checked and the one downstairs was filthy, so he changed them. Maybe that will help with the allergies.

Beautiful sky this morning.

I just woke up at quarter of 7, as the sun was rising. It looks like another beautiful sunny day.I was awake a little bit earlier, but went back to sleep. Yay!

Yesterday I was quite grumpy because I had to spend 3 hours in the morning at the Fellowship, talking about safety and security. There are people who want to be authorized to carry weapons in case of a shooting incident. She said she can't protect us without a gun. I said I don't want to live as if someone is going to come and shoot me. I am not willing to kill anyone to protect me or anyone around me. I got pretty upset about it.

In the afternoon, I managed to spend a couple of hours outside, clearing the grass away from around the blueberries and putting on wood chips. It was very sunny and pleasant, although cool in the shade. Ray and the Captain cut some wood. I am always nervous when they do, and Captain gets exhausted. He had already done a lot of gardening in the morning. He lets Ray do most of the work, but likes to contribute to keeping us warm in winter time. Even Vanessa trimmed the rose and cut back some zinnias.

I made dinner from a Rachel Ray recipe, a sort of soup, that we thought we be good on a cold day, but it turned out not to be very cold then. Her recipes are sort of frenetic, designed to be made quickly after work, which I appreciate, but is not really my style. Vanessa cut up a lot of the vegetables for me. Rachel thinks it can be done while the meat is browning, but I got behind. I also didn't have crushed tomatoes, so used tomato puree. It was very tomato-y. Neither Ray nor the Captain really likes tomato soup. But it was fine. Every night I ask the Captain to pick some lettuce (and other things) for a salad. Every night he comes in with just a few lettuce leaves, a couple radishes, some herbs, a spinach leaf or two. Ray adds a carrot from the grocery store and we all have a taste of something good. It gives me great pleasure to be able to eat something from the garden, even in mid-November. There are still peppers and one or two tomatoes as well.

No Britcoms last night; they were showing Christmas from Radio City...a little too early for my taste. We switched between DaVinci code and the Outlaw Josie Wales, two pretty violent movies. I hadn't seen Josie before. Someone (maybe my Dad) had been telling me about it recently. But we managed to turn it off and go to bed before 9:30. The machine is recording the rest, so I can watch it another time if I want.