Saturday and Breakfast Out

I slept well last night and got up shortly after 5:00. I have dressed and got myself ready for the day. Missy has been fed and is waiting to go out for awhile while it's still pleasant outside. It's only 6:00 right now and only beginning to get light out. I'll wait about 15 minutes later to take her out. It will be 101 degrees today.

I will pick up Bob for breakfast out at Eggberts at 7:00. That's now 45 minutes from now. 

I don't have a plan for today. I do need to dust furniture today but that's all. 

Missy is wanting to go out now and is mewing at me. I will work on this later.

We had a good breakfast and then I took Bob home.  I went out to Walmart and bought groceries for the week and while I was there, Elnora W. called me to tell me her youngest son, Brandon, had died suddenly. He was only 50. It was a terrible shock to her and all of us who knew the family. He had an aneurysm. He had felt poorly for a couple of days...dizzy and generally just felt bad. He would not go to the doctor because his medicaid had been cancelled and he had no insurance.  He didn't feel he had the money to pay for a doctor and all sorts of tests. So..he paid the ultimate price. They probably couldn't have done anything but give him blood thinners to dissolve the clot  but that's no guarantee he could have been saved. That's a tragedy! I will announce his passing at church tomorrow.

Now I need to get busy with the dusting.

I got the dusting finished and then watched another episode of Oliver Stone's DVD "Untold History of the United States". It's very interesting and gives one a different slant on American History.  It's mostly newsreels of history as it happened.

More later... 

Friday and Lunch at Big Cheese

I slept fairly well last night. I finally got up at 4:45.

This noon Bob and I will go to Independence and eat at Big Cheese. I still have the ham and potato casserole but he evidently missed eating at Big Cheese on Tuesday so instead of going to Joplin in this heat, we will drive up to Independence and have lunch at Big Cheese.

I want to vacuum this morning. I haven't got that done yet this week.  With all the cat hair around, I need to do that at least once a week. I combed Missy again outside yesterday morning to try to keep the shedding down.

I will get back to this after I get dressed and ready for the day. I need to make my bed too and feed myself and Missy.  More later...

Well, I got all that done and even took Missy out for an hour. She thoroughly enjoyed that. It was fairly cool with a light breeze.

I will pick up Bob for exercises and then go to Utopia after that. They are having birthday cake at the senior center today too for those who had birthdays in July. I may not be too hungry for pizza after all that. But that's the only things I will eat today.  I seldom eat supper.

Leslie called this morning and we talked awhile. She has Sage in July..the entire month. She is so busy she doesn't have much time for telephone calls. She will be on call this weekend.  I will be speaking at church on Sunday.  She may not be there.  Keith texted me while we were talking. He had made a deposit for me and was telling me that. I really appreciate the help the kids give me.  My car registration is due in August. I just paid off the hearing aid this month and last month I paid off the car. Things should be less tight now. I hope to pay back my savings now. I had been hitting it nearly every month before the Blue Cross Blue Shield of almost $300. comes out on the 28th. By the end of the month I am nearly out of money and my rent is due on the 1st,

I have an hour before I pick up Bob for exercises. Maybe I can get that apartment vacuumed before that.

So more later again.....

I got the apartment vacuumed before I am to go to pick up Bob. I wanted to catch the CBS news this morning. Everything is clean now. I did the bare floors on Monday.

This is my younger son and his wife and his daughter. Scott will be 57 in November.

 

Lookin good...aren't they?

Bob picked me up at 11:00 and we went to Independence to eat lunch at Big Cheese. It was really good. We stopped at the church on the way back to check to see if there were any dead mice in the four traps set there. There were none and the traps still had the bait in them. We must have caught the only mouse last week.

This is my older son and his wife, Esther. They are so good for each other! 


Keith will be 62 in August.

This is my daughter, Leslie, and one of her puppies. I don't have a photo of her husband, John. She turned 60 this month. .

 
My children are all senior citizens...but they have held up well.

I baked cookies after I got home and laid down for awhile. Bob came over to watch the CBS news and have a couple of cookies and then we watched Brooks and Shields on PBS and he stayed until 7:00. When he left, I watered the flowers on the east side and dead headed them.

Then I took my bath and watched TV with Missy until 9:00 when I went to bed. I was very tired again.

Thursday and A Trip to Independence and Bartlesville

I slept well last night once I got to sleep. I woke up once and went to the bathroom but other then that,  I didn't get up until 6:00. Then I dressed and got ready for the day.

It will be a big one. Juanita is nearly blind and it will be 100 degrees today. I will need to keep her out of the heat. She is 96.  It's hard enough on me and I am 81. She will have her pacemaker checked out at the heart center of Jane Phillips Hospital. Actually St. John's out of Tulsa bought them and then Ascention bought them. It's not the same hospital where Leslie and Scott were born. I found that out in January when I had my surgery.

Last night when I took my bath I discovered that my January surgery had failed. I thought it had but Dr. Peaster had checked and said it was fine. But, last night I noticed my bladder had prolapsed even more. I have not had a lot of luck with surgeries in my old age. My left foot bunion surgery failed and now my latest surgery has failed too. I'm not sure I want to have that left foot done over. My body's track record is not very good.

I took Missy out for awhile this morning and I also combed her again. She sheds so badly.  I finally got her to come back in. It is getting hot already.

More later...

I went on to Independence and while there, I stopped to vacuum out my car with their .25 car vacuum.

I had a call on my cell phone this morning while I was in Independence to pick up Juanita for her Dr, appointment in Bartlesville. A man who identified himself as the president of Publishers Clearing House called my cell phone.  He told me I had won second place in the Publisher's Clearing house contest and was going to have a package from UPS delivered. He said the prize was 1.8 million. He asked me if I was home. I told him I was in Independence, Kansas and would not be home until afternoon. 

He had a little accent so I immediately was on my guard. He said his name was David Wagner. He asked when I would be home for the delivery. I told him it would be 4:00 before I would be home. He said the check would be on Wells Fargo Bank and the number on the package was 700505816. He asked if I wanted TV there for the delivery and I said I would rather not. So he said "you want it to be personal and confidential?" I said "yes". He asked my address and zip code. After that, he asked me to read back all the information he had given me. I did that.  Then as soon as I hung up, I called the police and told them about it and asked them to have the policeman on the beat to check my neighborhood.

When I got home. he called again. This time he asked me how close I was to a Wal Mart store and I told him about 6 miles. He told me to go out there and register and that would allow me to escape paying any income tax on my winnings. I told him I did not think that was legal. That any winnings anyone received would be taxable.

He asked me if  I thought this was a scam and I told him I wasn't sure but I would know after 4:00.  He asked me to call him back on the number on my  caller ID  on my phone and I did that. The call cut in and out and I finally hung up. Then I called the police again. I explained why I was calling and they said they would send an officer right out to talk to me. I gave the officer all the information I had taken down.

He asked if the caller had asked for my social security number, bank number or birthdate. I told him "no" I had not given him any personal information. ..just my address. He obviously already had my telephone number. He thanked me for sharing that information with him and he will tell the other officers that scam is back again.  I wanted to let the police know about it so no one else will fall for that scam.

Juanita and I got back to her home at 3:00 and I got back home at 3:30.

It's 4:45 now and no check from Wells Fargo Bank. Darn! :)

Bob came at 5:15 and watched the news with me. He left at 6:00 after the CBS news.

I will take my bath and get ready for bed after I water the flowers on the east side.

I will go to bed at 9:00.

Wednesday and Exercises and Asbury Villiage Bunco

I slept well last night and was up at 5:00 as usual. I got Missy's and my breakfast and took her out on the carport to enjoy the morning while it was still cooler. It was 73 out there.

Then I came in and worked the crossword puzzle in the Reporter.  She is laying here at my feet now. She probably hopes to go back outside but that won't happen. I want to watch the news now.

I'm not sure what we will have for lunch today. I will have to check my recipes and see what I have on hand to fix. I am very tired of cooking. We are having a ham and potato casserole. I went to Country Mart and bought ham and cream of celery soup mix. I already have potatoes, milk, onion and paprika.

I will go on to exercises this morning and then after lunch, go out to Asbury Village for Bunco.  Sometime today, I will call the doctor's office again in Bartlesville to see what they have to say. Probably on Monday I will have to go to Bartlesville to pick up that paperwork at Dr. Webb's office and go sit at The Gap to wait for a turn to see a doctor or nurse to get that paper filled out. That will cost me $20.00. It sounds like a racket to me. They would not give me an appointment and the doctor who fills out the paperwork must be on staff at their hospital there. My doctor is in Coffeyville. I am having second thoughts about even having the surgery.

More later...

After exercise class we went to the Palace doughnut shop and I had a twist. After that, I called Dr. Webb's office AGAIN. This time they said I could get Dr. Peaster's office to fill out the form for me and bring it to them and if it was adequate, they would accept it. Dr, Peaster is at least am MD and not a nurse practitioner. I would think his evaluation would even be better...after all..he did surgery on me in January. I would like to avoid having to wait all morning or afternoon in a clinic waiting room for a nurse practitioner to check my blood pressure and heart. Dr. Peaster did all that in January and just three weeks ago.

Now I have the ham and potato casserole in the oven and it should bake an hour covered and fifteen more minutes uncovered. We will be slightly later having lunch. I will need to put the frozen corn in the microwave before we eat. Bob is bringing a salad.

After lunch, I will go to Asbury Village for Bunco at 2:00 until 3:00.

Lunch was fine. We have enough for another meal. I got everything cleaned up and Bob left and I went out to Asbury Village. We played for an hour. I won most losses and got a large bottle of nice lotion. I can use that.

When I got home, I discovered that I had not received my Coffeyville Journal in the mail...again. I called the woman I had talked to Tuesday about not getting Saturday's paper. She was mystified but told me she would stay until I came back to town and picked up a paper.  She gave me one...again.

Bob came over at 5:20 and we had a small bowl of Butter Brickle ice cream that I bought had bought at Brahms. He left at 6:30 and I took my bath and went out on the east side to water my flowers there. It is 89 degrees this evening. Then I watched TV with Missy for awhile. About 8:30 I came in here to check the e-mail and do this blog. 

Tomorrow will be huge! I will try to pick out Juanita's hair at 11:30. She has not had it done for a couple of weeks because of the hot weather and the fact that her hair dresser has broken her foot. We will leave at noon to go to Bartlesville to her heart doctor's appointment. It will be very hot and we are under hot weather alerts. I will need to get her out of the heat as soon as possible. It will be late afternoon when we get back to Independence. Although she has an appointment, it still takes all afternoon for them to get her worked through. She will be utterly exhausted when I get her home.  I may be too.

This evening, I will go to bed at 9:00.

Tuesday and Hairdo Day

I slept very well last night. I didn't get up until nearly 6:00.  I got up and got Missy and my breakfast  and watered the flowers in the front.  I walked down to the Dollar General store and bought some onion soup mix for my roast beef in the slow cooker. I have that on now with the carrots and potatoes.

I will just come back home after I get my hair done and go to the Independence Walmart store. I only need a couple of things now. One is my breakfast granola. I am completely out of cereal.  I finished mine up this morning. Dinner should be done by 10:00 or 10:30. I will put it on warm after that until 11:30 when we eat lunch. Then this afternoon from 3:00 until 6:00 I will work seating donors after they give blood at the Red Cross bloodmobile.

More later....

I called Dr. Webb's office to get an appointment on August 7th to have my left foot bunion repaired. They put me on the list that day but said I would have to have a form from my doctor that said I was in good enough shape for the surgery.  I told the nurse I had an appointment with my Dr. the week before the surgery and would have that documentation. She asked me who my doctor was and I told her. She said he was not on the staff of their hospital and I would have to go to a local clinic called "The Gap" to get that certification. They will charge me $20.00 for that.

Strange! Very strange. I've never heard of such a thing. I called The Gap and they said I would just have to sit and wait until they could "work me in".  They also said that was a very busy day and I might have a long wait. They wouldn't give me an appointment because I wasn't one of their "regular" patients.  I called Dr. Webb's office  again to see if Dr. Peaster could sign that form for me since I had just seen him just a couple of weeks ago. They said they would have to ask Dr. Webb and get back with me.

Back again later with this saga.

The doctor's office never called me back so I went on to the Red Cross and worked until 6:30 escorting people who had given blood to the table for nourishment.

Then I went on home and took my bath and laid down with Missy on the sofa to watch TV. Bob had come over and read the paper but had no idea how long I would be so he was already home when I finally got home. 

I went to bed about 9:30. I was very tired.

Monday and Exercises

I slept well last night and got up early. I have posted on this blog, fed myself and Missy, watered the front flowers and dead headed the ones in the above ground flower box that my son-in-law, John, made me.  I still have to water that east side. But I stopped to bring Missy back in so I could scrub the kitchen floor. It's going to be a scorcher today. I still need to scrub the bathroom floor. That will be my project for today. Thursday morning I will vacuum the apartment again.

Tomorrow I will get my hair done and Bob and I will eat at Big Cheese in Independence. In the afternoon I will work from 3:00 until 6:00 at the Red Cross bloodmobile escorting donors to a seat to eat.

Wednesday is exercise class again and in the afternoon I will go out to Asbury Village for Bunco.

Thursday I will take Juanita to Bartlesville to the heart doctor to check out her pacemaker.  I will not cook that day since I need to go get Juanita at noon since her appointment is at 1:15. 

Friday, I am free except for exercises. I will go to Utopia for a Utopiachino and cinnamon roll.  Then I will come home and cook lunch.

It will be another busy week and a scorcher.  More later...

This is the "girls" from the Living the Questions group.



Judy, Marilyn, me, Karan, Joyce, Mona, and Wendy

This was taken last evening at Marilyn's L's home.

I paid my car and apartment insurance today.  It came to a little over $304. I dropped the collision and made the comprehensive $1,000 deductible.  The car is ten years old and keeping collision on it is not practical.

Dinner turned out fine and I sent the leftover chicken home with Bob.

Juanita called me this afternoon to ask me to come at 11:30 on Thursday to help her "pick out" her hair. She has not gone to get it fixed lately because of the heat.  So she thinks it must look bad. I will try to make it so it pleases her.  The poor lady is blind and can barely see anything.

More later...I want to wash the bathroom floor this afternoon.

I laid down with Missy and kept falling asleep for a nap. 

Bob came shortly after 5:00 and watched the news with me.  He reminded me that he has a senior citizen board meeting tomorrow morning at 10:30 and cannot go to Independence with me.  So I will put a roast on in the slow cooker with potatoes and carrots instead of going to Big Cheese.

After Bob left, I took my bath and got ready for bed and went to bed at 9:00.

Next Sunday's Sermon

Become Children of the Kingdom

July 23^rd, 2017

Margie Miller

Today’s sermon topic is a great challenge to us all.  It asks us to become children of the “kingdom”.  Which kingdom is this challenge all about? In today’s world, we speak of Empires and Democracies instead of kingdoms. The people Jesus dealt with were even living under the domination of the Roman Empire….not an actual kingdom. 

Most of us are aware that Jesus spent his entire ministry challenging those he came in contact with to be able to see God’s kingdom and be willing to be a part of it. On several occasions he told his disciples that the kingdom of God already existed… even in their day.  That must have been difficult for them to even imagine. After all they were living under Roman domination and living hand to mouth because of the taxes the Romans assessed against them. 

But he demonstrated what would be necessary for them to be a part of God’s kingdom. He healed the ill and accepted the unacceptable in that society unconditionally. He welcomed tax collectors, prostitutes, women, and children. Tax collectors were especially hated in that society. They not only collected taxes for the Romans and the Temple but took enough for their own use. They were considered collaborators. 

Prostitutes were considered the dregs of their society. They used their bodies to make enough money to live on but they were despised.  In that society, if a woman was divorced by her husband, no other man wanted her. Women did not have the right to divorce their husbands. Men could discard any woman they were tired of without any penalty.  All women had few options in those circumstances. They and children were considered men’s possessions. According to the law, if children disobeyed their father, he had the right to stone them to death. People who were ill such as lepers and anyone with an issue of blood were sent to the gates of the city to beg for food. They were a pariah. If they could not recover on their own, they died. It was a harsh society. 

It didn’t seem possible that they would even be able to see the kingdom of God.

But Jesus used his stories…or parables.. to illustrate what he was attempting to teach his disciples.  Let’s listen to this parable and hear it’s explanation:

Matthew 13:24-30

Tares among Wheat

²⁴ Jesus presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field.  But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away.  But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also. The slaves of the landowner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ ²⁸ And he said to them, ‘An enemy has done this!’ The slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?’  But he said, ‘No, for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them. Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.”

The parable, referred to as the parable of the weeds of the field, comes in two parts. The first is the actual parable and the second is Jesus’ explanation of the parable to his disciples. The parts are connected to the parable of the sower and its explanation in Matthew 13:1–23 in two ways. One is the reference to sowing seeds in the field and the other is the use of one word found at the beginning and end of these two parables. The word is “listen”. Even the expression, “Let anyone with ears listen!” is common to both parables.

Jesus used parables, a well-understood method of illustration among Jewish teachers, to explain the kingdom of God both in the future and the present. This is among the first parables in the Gospel of Matthew. In this one Jesus tells his followers he has an important message and they need to listen carefully to these stories for hints at living life in God’s kingdom.

The parable begins with an illustration of good seeds being sown in a field. While no one was watching, weeds were sown in with wheat. The servants of the field asked if they should go in and remove the weeds. They are told not to uproot the weeds because that would damage the good roots of the wheat. So the plants are allowed to live side by side until the harvest. In Jesus’ explanation of the parable, he says it was the Son of Man who planted the seeds. 

He often referred to himself as the Son of Man to imply he was a dedicated follower of God, but also involved in presenting a vision of the kingdom. And sowing the seeds was a kingdom-building activity. Everyone is given the seed to produce good wheat but some choose not to accept. We call this “agency.” At some point, Jesus sent his servants to remove the causes of sinfulness leaving the children of God to shine in the kingdom. The listener is cautioned again to “listen”.

These scriptures tell us there will be conflicting priorities in our lives. We choose the path before us. We cannot isolate ourselves from those who do not accept the instructions of Jesus… We live among them. By our example we attempt to copy Jesus and affirm his mission of invitation, compassion, and justice. We can invite them to become children of God by providing examples of the compassion and justice we learn from the life of Jesus. We listen to instructions and respond as partners to set up God’s kingdom.

Listening is a lesson in stewardship. We are given the words of a loving God to respond in ministry to God’s people. We can choose to isolate ourselves, confident in the glow of God’s presence or we can move out in generous service sharing ourselves to our true capacity. Today we are reminded to listen to the instructions that give us strength for the difficult journey ahead and share the message of hope with those waiting to be invited.

We all are created and loved equally by God.  But everyone has their own agency and everyone can choose their own way. God cannot override our choices. God can only attempt by persuasion to influence us to make right choices. But God cannot coerce us. The choices we make are ours…and sometimes others…and will often  determine what our life is to be like. We live in a world of conflicting priorities. If we follow the instructions Jesus gave to his disciples “Let anyone with ears listen”, our life should be easier to live…because we will be listening to God’s still small voice. We can choose to be a part of the building of God’s kingdom on earth.  It all depends on our response. 

Good stewardship involves listening to the voice of God and responding to God’s people. 

I admire the billionaire, Warren Buffet. He lives a very simple life. He still lives in the house he built 27 years ago, has no yachts, or luxury cars. Warren Buffet has given his billions to Bill Gates to decide what worthy projects should be funded with their vast fortunes. He began his life as a simple farm boy. He threw newspapers and mowed yards and accumulated thousands of dollars (over $6,000) which would be over $68,000 in today’s dollars… which he invested. Over the years his decisions have been sound and now he is worth billions. Those billions are being used to make other’s lives better. His son and heir is a farmer. He loves to farm and will not inherit the fortune of the billionaire father. He really doesn’t want it. That is itself amazing. 

We cannot decide for our children how they will live their lives. We cannot even be sure they will follow our paths in religious choices. That is their decision.  I have three children. I am very fortunate..their father and I did the best we could to influence them to stay with the church we chose. We sent them to youth camps each summer and we attended family camp (reunion as a family) each summer. We always felt this church is the closest to the movement Jesus began…it is service oriented and that’s what Jesus taught his disciples….to be of service to others. In our movement, local congregations have no paid ministers.    

But my eldest son, a wonderful loving and generous man, chose to attend a mega church. He met his wife there and they are both wonderful people. They are following a good path even though it isn’t the one we would have chosen for him.

Our other son, the younger one, doesn’t go to church at all but he too is a loving and generous person. He is married to a fine woman too. 

Leslie is the one child we reared who stayed with this church. She is exceptionally dedicated to service to the less fortunate of the area as a case manager at Four County Mental Health.  She too is generous to a fault.  She married a fine man 42 years ago and is still married to him. She even managed to bring him into the church. 

I am so fortunate they have all made generally good decisions.  In this world, that is much more difficult than it was for me in the world I grew up in. 

We all have the opportunity to become children of God’s Kingdom. It’s a choice…and the choice is ours. God’s kingdom is all around us but is like the seeds and the tares, that are mixed together, so are the people in God’s Kingdom. Some listen and hear God’s voice and others choose to go their own way. 

In our lives, that is a choice we each will make. May God help his guiding spirit to be apparent to each of you is my prayer.

Sunday and Coffeecake

I slept fairly well last night. I awoke at 2:00 and it took me awhile to get back to sleep but I did get back to sleep....even though I had another dream just before I awoke.

I got up around 5:00 and got myself ready for church and fed Missy and myself. She wanted to go outside and just as soon as I got my coffeecake mixed up and in the oven, I took her out while I watered again. She wanted to wander this time. After chasing her down a couple of times, I brought her back inside while I read the newspaper and iced the coffeecake.  Then after I got that done, I took her back outside and she behaved herself that time.

My neighbors, Rick and Carman  told me yesterday evening they would be at our church again today. Leslie, my daughter, is speaking this morning. Rick and Carman  are such neat kids. He is the supervisor/manager of a trucking company here in Coffeyville and she is a housewife. They are about 52 years old. He had a birthday a couple of weeks ago. I took the ice cream for a small party she invited the people of the fourplex to attend. I assume she is about the same age. They have been married 27 years they said. She is originally from Columbia South America. I don't know what brought her to the USA. She is quite pretty and very nice. I asked them to go to lunch with us at Just Us the last time they attended our church. But she wanted to go to a Mexican restaurant. I understood.

I was visiting with him after I went to the campgrounds last Sunday. He was curious about our family camps that we call reunions. I would have invited them to go with me but Sue R. had called and wanted John and herself to ride with me. So I wouldn't have had room for two more in my little car.

In about 20 minutes I will go pick up Bob. Then we will go get Phyllis. We ride together so we won't have three cars at the church parking lot and then we three go to Just Us for lunch.

When I get back home, I will do the congregational newsletter and then prepare to go to Marilyn's L's house this evening for our Living the Questions group meeting at 7:00.

This will be a busy week. Tomorrow I have exercise class as usual and after lunch I have to go pay my car insurance sometime tomorrow afternoon. Then Tuesday I will have my hair appointment and lunch with Bob at Big Cheese and then work at the Red Cross escorting blood doners to their seats from 3:00 until 6:00. Wednesday I will have exercise class and after lunch Bunco at Asbury Village in the afternoon. Thursday I will take Juanita to the doctor in Bartlesville to have her pacemaker checked at 1:15. I will have to pick her up at noon so no lunch that day. Friday it's exercises again and then cinnamon roll day at Utopia. Between all this, I will clean house and do laundry. Busy...busy..busy.

More later....

I took some photos at Gay's family reunion yesterday and I thought I had one of her son, Paul, but when I downloaded them, I found I did not have one of him. Darn!

This is Gay. We have been friends since she was 14 and I was 17.

This is her husband, Tony. He has lost 70 pounds since being on dialysis.

This is her daughter,Kathy. The women behind Kathy is Janet, the one that helped me with the dishes and cleaning up after lunch. I sure thought I had one of Paul but guess I just thought I did.

I got all the newsletters finished and out on the mailbox ready for the mailman tomorrow.

I have an hour or so before Bob comes over to watch the news. I will work on my list of classmates. I lost another one yesterday.

Bob came and we watched the news and 60 Minutes until time to go to the Living the Questions group meeting at Marilyn's.  Marilyn called me to say Karan wanted to come too but needed someone to pick her up. I called Karan and volunteered.

Bob drove his own car. It was a smaller group. Howard and Judy were there, Karan and me, Bob, John and Wendy, Richard and Mona,  Joyce, and of course, Marilyn. That's 11 of us. I don't like the material we are using. It's more like an ancient history lesson then about religion.

I took Karan home at 9:00 and came home myself and watched the CNN special about the comedy of the 70's. At 10:30, Missy and I went to bed.