Meals, Music, Movies, and More Meals

We had quite a nice weekend, I know it's Tuesday, but I'm still thinking about all that happened. On Friday night, our church choir participated in a choir benefit for an agency that supports homeless families in our town. Churches, including mine, take turns hosting the families for a week at a time. The church provides the evening meal and places to sleep, usually on air mattresses in Sunday School rooms. During the day, the clients go to a day home where the agency works with them to find housing, jobs, etc. It has been a pretty successful program and has really changed my view of what it means to be homeless. Most are young women with children. Anyway, there were about a dozen choirs participating along with an orchestra and a brass group. It was fun to hear the other choirs perform and also to sing two pieces as a mass choir. The event raised $9,000 plus, so that was nice considering the tough economic times for most people. Afterwards, most of the choir went to a Mexican restaurant for a late supper and drinks. On Saturday, I did some things around the house and also got the leaves in the front yard picked up again. It was cold enough to see my breath, so I felt a little silly, but I used the mower with the bagging attachment to get the leaves. Late in the afternoon, we met four other couples to go see the new James Bond movie Quantum of Solace. I didn't really like the movie that well, but all of the "boys" did. After that we went to an Italian restaurant for a fabulous meal, so that made the evening worth it. I was pretty exhausted by the time we got home. I had recorded the Gopher hockey game, so I watched that mostly on fast forward. We had to be to church early on Sunday as the bell choir and the regular choir I'm in performed at the early service. We played bells at the beginning of the late service too and then I came home for a quick nap. I had to make it quick since we were hosting a Fellowship Tables meal Sunday night. For this there are four couples who get together three times during the year for a meal. It is a nice chance to get to know some people we wouldn't otherwise. I knew the other couples only a little, so I wasn't sure how it would go, but we had a really nice time. Everyone brings part of the meal, so it isn't so much work for the hosts. I also managed to watch most of the Sunday afternoon hockey game while I was working around the house and kitchen. I've never been much of a hockey fan, but the goalie is from our town and I know his parents, so it has been fun to keep up with it. He had his first shut-out and is undefeated so far this year.