Well - this will be the last you hear from me UNTIL Saturday night. Don't give up on me. Hopefully, I will be full of exciting things and stories to tell after the conference.

It was a blustery day. The wind blew and a cold rain fell most of the day. We got the antenna for our indoor outdoor thermometer all set up today. Now, I can just glance at the thermometer to see WHAT jacket to put on when Chelsea and I go for our morning walk.

We hung the pictures in the hall next to the guest bath this afternoon. We put the picture of Christ that Barb did for us right next to our bedroom and the Meerkat poster from the Smithsonian on the other side of the door.

I cut out the pieces to assemble the quilt top that Donna wants to give to our friends Ken and Helen for their grandchild. Donna does do beautiful cross stitch. I am still actually trying to figure out how I ended up assembling it. Donna is, as I said, a good soul and it is OK. She knows that I am still really involved and won't be able to REALLY rush it.

We had chili tonight. Boy was it good. Now Dick will have plenty to eat that is easy to fix while I am gone. There will only be three nights and there is soup in the cupboard and there are hot dogs in the fridge for variety.

I will be leaving at about 2:00 tomorrow afternoon and will be back LATE on Saturday evening. The conference lasts two full days and they are full days. I registered last spring, the registration includes ALL meals and all speakers and entertainment, everything but the room which I will be sharing with Maureen and Mary from Chicago.

At other conferences, a storyteller, named Beth Vaughan was always in attendance, entertaining us as Biddy O'Byrne. She also gave mini classes in storytelling, very proud of the craft that she exemplified so well. She was scheduled to be here again this year, but Jean Bills sent out an email a couple of weeks ago that Beth had died. She will be missed. I have one of her tapes. She was just precious and joy shone from her eyes. She must be a welcome ray of light on the streets of heaven.

Mary