Wednesday, October 26, 2016

We had a full house for our concert last night. We try to limit our numbers to 30 but one or two regulars were added to the list at the last minute. When we set up our chairs we were at 32 so still not too bad. As the time for the show got near we had to add a couple more chairs which seemed odd but we assumed we had miscounted when we set them up. It wasn’t until Pat and our performers were sorting out the money that we realized there were two people who had paid but hadn’t been added to the list. It was only by good luck we realized this as one of the unaccounted-for guests knew the performers’ mother. When they were trying to find her name I remembered that I had sold them their tickets at the Mary Flower concert and Pat had neglected to add their names to the list. Mystery solved and it was an exceptionally full house. We’re already at 26 people for our November concert; it is nice when these things just sell themselves.

Our performers generally leave on the noon ferry but the girls wanted to spend a bit of time in Courtenay on the way to their next show so they caught the 8:00 AM ferry. It was an early morning for all of us, but it did give us the whole day for ourselves. I’m filling my extra time by getting my office work done (I had to prepare for a Board meeting tonight anyway, as well as get the Guild blog written), getting several loads of laundry and dishes done, and I’ll go out for my flu shot this afternoon. I’m gradually getting everything sorted for our Houston trip – shopping list, vendor list, travel insurance and reservation list.

We’re off to a movie tonight after our Board meeting; we’re both tired but, as Pat says, it’s a good excuse to keep the meeting short (meeting at 5:30 and movie at 7:00).

And with any spare time I have I’m going to get back to some cross stitching.

Friday, October 28, 2016

It feels like I’ve been backstitching on this project for weeks, and I still have weeks left to do before it is finished.

If it didn’t make such a dramatic difference I’d be tempted to skip it.

Thursday, October 27, 2016

Last night’s board meeting went well but I came home with another task; I volunteered to serve at the concession for the Coffee House on Sunday night. I knew I had “stuff” in my freezer so I didn’t think it would be too onerous, but I forgot I would be out at Community Quilts all day Saturday and Sunday. As it turns out Scott, who arranges the Coffee House, provides all the treats so all I’ll have to do is keep the coffee and tea replenished.

You will see we had a movie last night. We had a little chat before the show with a couple who come to our House Concerts. We saw them on the way out of the movie and Rosie thought he was there to see The Magnificent Seven; Cheryl apparently knew that movie wasn’t showing but she was afraid if Rosie knew what really was showing he wouldn’t have come. We had a good laugh with them!

Because all my office work was done yesterday I’ve been able to devote most of my day to cross stitching. My Advent Calendar is progressing but it will still be a challenge to have it ready for the first of December. I should get another good day at it tomorrow and that will probably be it until after our trip. I’m thinking perhaps the charms will be my stitching project “for the road”, although I’ve been planning on something else for the last few weeks.

And speaking of making progress, I’m determined to get the monster book I’m reading finished before I leave. With that in mind I took a bit of time after lunch to read a few pages. I’m so ready for this book to be done, but then I was ready for it to be done after the first hundred (of 1300) pages!

Monday, October 24, 2016

I’m almost ready for our concert tomorrow night. We have a Sold Out show, with a waiting list, so I’m happy about that.

I started my laundry this morning while I got some packages ready for the mail. I intended to have my Hallowe’en treats in the mail much sooner but the cards took longer than I anticipated; or it may have been a case of having less time to work on them than I anticipated. They all should arrive before Hallowe’en though and that is the main thing. In fact there will be two packages going to Maple Ridge; at the bottom of a pile of things I was sending to Saskatoon I found something I missed adding to Dylan and Taylor’s package. Rather than open the box and repackage it I just sent another envelope to Taylor.

After making my stop at the Post Office I went and got groceries. One of our performers is a vegetarian so we are serving a veggie chili with quinoa. I’ll also make a corn bread for those of us who can have gluten but the performer who can’t will have to settle for some gluten-free toast (provided she will accept a shaken-out toaster). She isn’t celiac so we have some leeway. We’ll have an extra person for dinner as well; one of my quilting friends lost her husband recently so I asked her to come to dinner and be our guest at the show. I’ll pick her up and drive her home so she can relax for the evening.

Pat and I cooked the chili after lunch today so it will just be a warm-up tomorrow night. We did that last week and found it worked out well; the cooking dishes can be washed and put away well in advance, and the meal tastes just as good (if not better) by sitting for a day. I’ll make the corn bread after I get home from the bee tomorrow.

I’ve got the beds and bathrooms all cleaned and ready. We’ll set up the chairs in the living room tonight (our concert area) and I’ll be off to quilting tomorrow. Neither rain nor house concert can keep me from the bee!