Let my voice join the chorus of those who encourage and endorse marital dating. It took a bit of planning and a barrel of perseverance, but David and I finally took time away on a mini getaway. I know why we have not done it in the past, and all I can say is I'm glad we survived to be able to do it now...and plan on doing it periodically for the rest of our lives. Money and time, money and time...the two big party poopers! They've crashed many a daydream. This weekend we were able to alleviate one and just dismiss the other. Thanks to David's too frequent work travel he has accumulated points for travel and hotels. Those points have been unaddressed primarily due to the time constraint...even if we would like to use the travel or hotel points, who had the time?? There are always things to do. (Side note - how can a healthy person ever be bored?? busy - yes, bored - no!) Very few of those things are actually time-critical, and many of those time-critical things can actually be addressed via the internet at unconventional times...such is the world these days. For example, I can do my bill-paying/banking online during my lunch or at 5:00 a.m. Back to the topic at hand...

We cashed in some hotel points and Friday after I got home from work took a 2-hour drive to Wayne County, headed for a Roadway Inn in Wooster. David toyed with his iPhone as I drove, searching for local attractions and restaurants. We already knew the primary site for Saturday's excursion, Lehman's Hardware in Kidron, but the rest of our trip was in flex. David called out names of restaurants, and when he said, "The Olde Gaol...casual dining...steaks...seafood", I said, "Yes!!" The iPhone led us to the door. I was delighted as we wound our way down the stairs of a century old remodeled courthouse into the old stone jail in the basement. The idea now sounds like it would seem creepy, but it was anything but. Candles, crystal, tablecloths...beautiful! We had an amazing meal; I had scallops and walleye, and David had onion soup and a steak...one of the best meals we've ever had. Our hotel was only a couple of blocks away. I slept for almost 10 hours...crazy!

After breakfast at the hotel we headed to Kidron, driving through Amish farmland, embellished by the golds of autumn. Rows and rows of shocks of hay against the cloudy gray sky soothed my spirit. The beauty of excellence in simplicity cannot be denied. Trusty iPhone led us straight to Lehman's. I had been a bit skeptical when David first told me I would enjoy visiting this hardware store, but I was in for a real treat. Lehman's caters to the Amish and Mennonite communities and all of us who long for a similar peaceful and industrious lifestyle. I did see a few of the simple folk, but most of the customers were like us...not unlike Dorothy and friends as they entered the gates of Oz. Where to go first??? We eased through the little souvineer area and made a beeline to the heating showroom. Oh my! Woodstoves, coal-burning stoves, gas...Vermont Castings, Hearthstone, Hitzer, every style, color imaginable. There were gas-powered refrigerators. There were electric or gas stoves with an attached wood-burning stove. If a person were so-inclined she could design an entire kitchen that appeared to come from a century ago...or from the fifties...pretty much anything but our current styles...yet as high-tech as they come. Of course, one pays dearly for this luxury...stoves and refrigerators in the $3-5 thousand range. But it was fun to daydream. We found a couple of woodstoves that we are considering for our kitchen and also discovered that there are tax incentives to such purchases just now...bonus! One of the little items I was intrigued by was a miniature fan that sits on top of a woodstove; as the stove's heat rises, the fan begins to whirl...blowing the warm air through the room. I must have one of those!

We then meandered through the book area where I found a cookbook and an American Sign Language book of common phrases. David and I parted company at this point; he headed to the hand tools and I to the housewares. Boy do I miss cooking! When my new kitchen is up and running, I will bake and sautee and poach and grill to my heart's content. I cannot do justice to all the items I purused...made of iron and stoneware and sparkling glass and metal. Baking, preserving, smoking...home economics at its best. I purchased a new popcorn popper, salt and pepper shakers, and couple of nifty tools. I met back up with David and admired his find of a propane-fired outdoor burner, that will make a nice addition to our sugar shack operation. Lehman's was getting a bit crowded by then, so we headed out. We had not planned our lunch yet, so we pulled in to the first area with a "restaurant" sign out front. It looked unremarkable...more like a grocery store or a clothing store, but we headed in. We could smell food cooking but saw nothing dinerish...until we spotted a sign that said restaurant downstairs. Hmmm, eating in a basement for the second time in less than 24 hours. There it was...a busy, homey diner...appearing to have a few locals as well as a few tourists. David had a grilled Swiss cheese sandwich and jello and I had a chicken fried steak sandwich. We shared an apple dumpling with ice cream for dessert. Oh my, how this simple fare hit the spot! We then checked out the clothing (everything lined was 15% off); David got gloves for fishing, and I got a snazzy (faux) fur-lined, ear-flapped winter hat. Score!!

We headed south, crossing in to Holmes County. We used a free Amish attraction map, along with the iPhone, to find three furniture stores and a bakery. The furniture stores were filled with items of oak, cherry, maple, a little hickory...and very nice salespeople. The bakery was especially fun. It was austere in appearance but luxurious with smells. The aroma of doughnuts and pies and bread was thick but not quite over-powering. The woman who helped us smiled broadly, revealing a couple of spaces where teeth should have been. Her bright blue eyes behind her wire-rimmed glasses danced as we spoke, admiring her baked goods. After a few minutes her husband joined us, and we began to make small talk. When we told them we were on a belated anniversary outing, the wife said they had just had their anniversary two days earlier. It turned out they had been married for 35 years (to our 37), and had 4 children...just like us, except they have 2 boys and 2 girls, to our 3 girls and 1 boy. We have them beaten on number of grandchildren, as they have only 3 to our almost 7. The wife giggled and looked embarrassed when David use the phrase, "One in the oven." Luckily, her husband laughed openly. Anyway, we left with smiles on our faces and various fried and baked goodies in our possession.

We stopped at a couple of other mildly interesting stores, but we were in Amish overload mode and ready to head back to Providence Farm, even with its unfinished construction and unfinished chores.

This morning, David is off with Dan, fly-fishing before church.

What would we do without weekends?

What a nice Saturday I had! I was feeling a bit blue for whatever reason, but I ended the day contented.

Everyone except me went to Solomon's last football game bright and early...I just needed to sleep in, so I did. The early morning drizzle subsided. I got some cleaning done and reduced my ironing pile somewhat. I'm doggie sitting Maddie the black toy poodle;she and Pansy are getting along well. I read a little and combed the Internet some.

At 2:00 Jon-David and I had an appointment with our Amish cabinet-maker, John Miller. (Most common Amish surnames - Miller, Byler, Yoder, Troyer, Gingerich) John Miller has his cabinet shop behind his white farmhouse. He is a youngish (mid-thirties) man with kind, brown eyes...soft-spoken, and, from the high recommendations we've received, quite the artisan. He was very matter of fact and thorough. He came out on Thursday and toured the room, making measurements, so he had a neat pencil drawing of the room with all numbers clearly written. He leafed through catalogs, verifying my preferences on types of storage. I thought I had given him enough when I gave a picture of my cabinet door preference. How silly of me! He could make every piece any size I wanted, with any type of edge I wanted, depth of groove, corner bevel...details I had not imagined. But he knew it all. He also had recommendations when I was stymied...based on his work with other clients and his knowledge of kitchen work spaces. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I'll be ordering my double oven asap, as well as my cooktop. They are both going to be improvements on what I had previously. The oven will be 30" wide, instead of my previous 24"...(John says I'm going to really enjoy all that extra space!) And my cooktop will be one with a down draft. No more tall men cracking their heads on the edge of the vent hood.

Several times I heard footsteps in his workshop, and finally, a boy who looked about 5 years old...with the same kind brown eyes as his Papa, crept into the office. He returned my smile and held up an inflated plastic glove...his improvised balloon. No doubt Papa had plenty in his workshop. As we left I saw three other children, a boy and two girls, busy outside. The boy (around 11) was mowing the yard with a mechanical push lawnmower, and the two girls, slightly younger, were standing amid the billowing clothing on the clotheslines. The clothes were organized by gender apparently...a dozen or more shirts, solid bright colors of blues and greens, and a similar number of various sizes of dresses, in slightly more muted shades of pinks, blues, and greens. The deep indigo of the hand-sewn denim trousers finished out the lines. I thought about the beauty they find in simplicity...the order in their lives...appealing in many ways.

I then drove down to Kent to visit with Faith. She is struggling with a cold/bronchitis and had called off work. We had plenty of time to talk. I had supper with her, Dan, and friend Trace, and then I headed home.

I feel revived.

I'm having a great time in Indy with Hannah and Chad, and, of course, Cash. I really like their new home and wish I lived nearer to help her them with some of the things they'd like to do to make it their own.

This morning Hannah and I ran in a 5K. It was difficult, but I'm not sure why. Possibly because my Ipod got messed up and I listened to the wrong things. Possibly because I have an adverse reaction to adrenalin...can adrenalin cause weird side-effects? I felt like I was insane after the race started. Or...could it possibly be that Hannah made me run too fast??? Somehow, through the constant encouraging/nagging by Hannah I finished in only 32 minutes 48 secconds...improving my record by almost 3 minutes...that's just weird. Anyway...Hannah is amazing and should be a personal trainer, running coach or something, because it did work. I wound up getting 1st place in my age bracket.

Hannah said that I should have nothing left at the end of the race. She said it is supposed to be painful. She said that I should find the next person I was going to pass...then pass them, and find another person to pass. That worked until we got to the girl with the blonde ponytail...either she sped up, or we slowed down...not sure which. She asked me, "Which is stronger...your mind or your body?" That was supposed to make me keep going, and it did.

Last night we had old college friend, Joe, and his son, Nathan, and daughter-in-law, Sarah, and grandson, Amos, over for dinner. We had a really great time...very nice and interesting people.

OK...on with the weekend!

I'm not sure when it happened, but "yep" is the new "you're welcome". I, for one, do not look on this kindly. "Yep" is slang for "yes", and "yes" is a positive response to a question, or maybe an interjection, uttered when something positive happens. So you give me something or do something kind, I say "Thank you", and you say "Yep." I think you are acknowledging that I thanked you. So here's the exchange in my head:

Fast food employee - "Here's your food and your change." (If in the south, you could insert "maam" here.)

Me - "Thank you."

Fast food employee - "Yep."

Me - "What?"

FFE - I said, "yep".

Me - Yep what?

FFE - Just "yep".

Me - But I didn't ask you anything.

FFE - You said "thank you", and I said "yep" because...just "yep".

Me - But I didn't ask you a question...like a yes/no question.

FFE - I was trying to be polite.

Me - But what does it mean?

FFE - I don't know.

Me - Do you ever say "nope" when someone says "Thank you"?

FFE - nope

Me - Have you ever heard of the words "You're welcome"?

FFE - what?

Me - nevermind.

******

And while I'm on the subject of manners, I recently received a thank you note that was a photocopy/generic letter, with absolutely no personalization...my name, the kind of gift, etc. This is, I believe, the third such thank you I have received, and I believe it is the wave of the future. I'm feeling disillusioned at the moment. Maybe celebrants should just open up some sort of website before their happy occasion, send their friends and family emails guiding them to said website, and then we can just transfer funds...there could be an automated response such as "Your gift has been received. Aiden says thank you." To which I can respond by email, "Yep."

...school, that is...

I'm off in about 30 minutes to begin my 4th year of teaching. The prospect is good. I have prepared as much as I could for a 1st day. Let's have a go!