What a day. I got a LOT done. Started this morning with cleaning the kitchen, then I finished that article for the Angelus (our church newsletter). At about 11:30 I left for Plymouth and went to the bank, the Sewing Basket and lunch with the ladies at the Dairy Queen. Following lunch, I stopped at the church office to drop off the article and I spoke to Fr. Gene for a bit about the concern cards.

The trip to the Sewing Basket was successful. I found a nice sale fabric for the back of the quilt top that I just completed . It is a twin quilt. I really like the colors. Mainly greens and browns.

Then home. I cleaned the strawberries for dinner. We had shortcake on those chocolate bisquits that I made a few weeks ago and froze. I also prepared pork tenderloin, rice and egg rolls for supper. The pork was roasted at a rather high heat, 400 degrees, and basted with a sauce of ketsup, soy sauce and apple cider vinegar. It was very tasty, tender and moist. The nice thing about tenderloin is that here is very little fat and it lives up to its name - tender.

Dick and I mixed a batch of White Zinfindal, five gallons, into the primary fermenter. Tomorrow, I will add the yeast. The temperature has to cool a bit from the initial mixing or the yeast will die. We also have a box of Gerwertziminer that we will start as soon as we get the White Zin into the secondary.

Tomorrow evening we are going to see the Trinity Irish Dancers at the Weill Center. I believe I will wear the sequinced vest that Dick bought me for St. Patrick's day.

I will end with a story that I have received a couple of times through email. Most of you probably have received it too, but it is really special.

What a son taught his Dad

One day a father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the
country with the firm purpose of showing his son how poor people live. They
spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a
very poor family.
On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, "How was the
trip?"

"It was great, Dad."

"Did you see how poor people live?" the father asked.

"Oh yeah," said the son

"So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?" asked the father.

The son answered: "I saw that we have one dog and they had four.

We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a
creek that has no end.

We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night.

Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon.

We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go
beyond our sight.

We have servants who serve us, but they serve others.

We buy our food, but they grow theirs.

We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to
protect them."

The boy's father was speechless.

Then his son added, "Thanks, Dad, for showing me how poor we are."

The buying food versus growing it reminds me of the children at Sarnelli House. Fr. Mike says that they have great difficulty understanding why they have to help plant the fields when (as they keep showing him) there us perfectly good rice and other food in the market. I told him I understand their feelings as I used to HATE working in Mom and Dad's garden when I was a kid.

Later

Mary