The Sheboygan Symphony tonight featured Big Band Music and was quite wonderful. Most of the featured artist were local, including a young man, Luke Talen, a senior at Plymouth who got to play the piano with the orchestra.

We filtered the White Zinfandal today and for the first time we experienced what happens if you put the filters in backwards. I did it and it plugs up. All that gets through is air and bubbles. What a mess. I managed to spray wine all over the floor and the bench and had to do quite a bit of scrubbing. I will be EXTRA careful from now on.

I hope it will be pleasant tomorrow and not windy or wet, as Bobbie and I are going out to check out our deer stands. We know how to get there but it has been a year and a trip in the daylight will make us feel more secure. Jeff's Shane will be here again to hunt with us. It is nice that he can do that.

Have a nice Sunday.

Mary

This was a full day. It was sad to go to the visitation for John Walsh. I am glad I went as Dorothy, his mother, was glad that I came. I stopped this afternoon after lunch with the girls inPlymouth.

It is cold - Again the temperatures have dropped to below 30 degrees. It was below 30 this morning when Chelsea and I walked. She loves it. I am sharing a picture of our Chelsea today. Another of my experiments with transmitting adding pictures to the Blog.

Isn't she a pretty girl?

Have a nice weekend.

Love

Mary

Well, Jeff brought the venison to Mother's over the weekend, so I picked it up tonight. Now, even if we don't fill out, I have some. There are about 10 packages of steaks, chops and ground venison. I believe I will make chili sometime in the next week or two. Nothing better in the world than good old Venison Chili.

Tomorrow is the bust up party for the pistol league that Bobbie, Jim and I shoot in. I did much better this time. My average was 47 point something, which is up about 10 points from last time.

It is getting colder by the day. Chelsea and I walked in 33 degrees this morning, but it was still and not wet. She loves that kind of weather and was quite frisky.

Jim is not feeling well again. I hope he can make the bust up. It would be too bad to go through the whole thing and then not be able to celebrate the end.


I made Cranberry Relish today for Thanksgiving. It needs to blend and mature and lasts "forever." I use the recipe Mother always used and the Kunert's have come to love it too.

Here it is.

Cranberry Relish

4 cups whole cranberries
1 apple
2 oranges
1/2 of the peeling of one of the oranges
2 cups sugar

Grind all the fruit and the orange peel and mix together with the sugar and let it mature.

I love it.

Have a good Friday

Mary

Here it is Wednesday already. As I said yesterday, I got to stay home all day.

We mixed up a batch of wine. I did a bit of writing. I am trying to finish a short story for a contest. It is due by December 1 and there is another one due by December 6 if I can get two done. I wrote the premise and I did a spellcheck so far.

I also sewed a bit tonight. I am ready to put the last edge on the table runner that Liz Roehl taught me how to do and I am making spiders. I will explain that later. I hope I am making you curious.

It was quite warm today and is raining tonight. I brought in some more plants for the winter. This nice weather can't last forever. All I have left are covering the roses, checking and covering the herb garden and pulling the marigolds out of the front planter. Only two weeks til Thanksgiving. We will be going to Bobbie's for dinner and Dick and Brenda will be here. It will be good to see them as it has been a while again.

Right after Thanksgiving we will start decorating for Christmas. I need to do some baking too. I found a cranberry pumpkin bread that I want to try. If it doesn't turn out, I will go back to my old cranberry bread. I have decided to make Scripture Cake this year. Must check for the ingredients.

Have a nice Thursday.

Love

Mary

One of the people on the prayer chain called me last night. She was calling in reverse because she needed to talk to someone. Her son had been taken to St. Luke in Milwaukee because he had an infection in his heart. She couldn't go because she has an infection herself and could not be near him in his condition. Today his name came to me through the regular prayer chain progression. I called her back as she is my contact and I needed to give her the other names and tell her that John's name was out there.

She told me that he passed on early this morning, with his siblings there with him. He went to heaven fifteen minutes after they disconnected the respirator. She is grateful that he is no longer suffering. Such a faith. Please pray for John and his mother, Dorothy and the other children.

We finally finished the last of the food that I brought home from the turkey dinner tonight. It was still good. Had one little "incident". I prepared the plates for the microwave and then left the room for about 10 minutes. When I returned to finish heating everything, a big slice of the turkey was MISSING. I searched around the livingroom and kitchen and found ROXIE - the thief with the evidence right there in front of her. That cat is a real opportunist. I must be more aware.

Have a nice Wednesday. I don't have to go anywhere.

Love

Mary

We had an animated discussion this morning at Bible Study about the purpose of Baptism, the truth of the Old Testament and Noah. Quite diverse - Right, but we were following threads. Veronica said that she took a bible study on the Old Testament a bit ago and the teacher started out by saying that everything in the Bible is true and some of it even really happened.

Tomorrow the only errand we have is shopping. That is good because the past four days have been WAY too busy.

Have a nice Tuesday. I am going to add a picture as I am practicing. This is a new feature on Blogger. The picture is of a lighthouse up in Door County that I took this summer.

Mary

What a remarkably full day.

Beth Hoegger, Bill Berg, Fran Woodke and I went to the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist (as I found out it is properly called) for a MiArchdiocesan Choral Festival.

We spent two to three hours under the direction of Dr. John Ramori, choral director from the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, St. Louis. MO. to prepare for a performance and prayer service that lasted from 7:30 to 8:45. Bishop Sklba was the officiant and blessed the musicians as part of the ceremony. There were choir directors, musicians and choir members from all over the southeastern part of Wisconsin. We had received the music pieces earlier. Some of them were very difficult and we were so proud to be able to pull them off as well as we did. The choir did pull together very well and sounded great especially in the Cathedral which has great accustics.

Bilhop Sklba had some very special statements in his homily. He said that it is such a wonderful miricle that people can breathe in silence and then let it out, producing such beautiful music. Then he said that (this is almost a quote, so I will italicize it) It is not that wonders have ceased to exist in our world, but that we have ceased to wonder.

We must bring wonder back into this world. Music is such a good way to do it.

Have a good week.

Mary