Double Success!
Late this morning I drove onto campus once more to pick up Cianna, this time to take her to the Department of Public Safety in our own town. I have been there many times over the years and spent many hours waiting in line with various offspring. Today’s visit, though, was just a formality for Cianna since she completed all the requirements yesterday. So I got a little reading done in the car while waiting for her to emerge victorious:
So proud of her. That was success #1 of the day. I took her back to her apartment and came home to work on some of my own chores. Then I had a sudden urge to go to the tearoom. I haven’t been since before my trip to Dad’s, and I just found myself longing for a little interlude where I could sit and sip tea in a peaceful setting. Walter was working on house stuff so I went by myself.
Ah . . . To my delight, the owner Michelle was the only one working there. And I turned out to be the only customer. So I chatted with Michelle for a while and then sat in glorious solitude sipping tea and reading. It was a lovely and very welcome respite, and I had these gorgeous roses to look at:
All too soon, it was time to head back and haul the brisket out of the roaster. After 28 hours, it should have been falling-apart tender, but it wasn’t. In fact, once I got past the outer edges, it was still red inside. This is a distressing way to learn that your roaster’s thermostat is clearly defective.
So I cut away the parts that were done and put the rest back at a higher temperature for a few more hours.
Cianna came over at 5:00 with her bicycle, as she needed help getting the brakes set up properly.
It took longer than I expected, but they got it done in the end, and Cianna joined us for supper (brisket sandwiches, duh). She cycled back to her apartment before it got too dark.
And during our video this evening, I played a thrilling game of yarn chicken and won:
I really didn’t think I had enough of that green yarn. I had backup yarn, just in case.
Joy Spark: This morning I received a phone call from my Scottish friend Maggie, who is currently in the middle of a three-month camping tour of Europe with her husband (in Hungary at the moment). They had tried to send a contribution to our outgoing fund and it had caused some problems with their bank. Eventually it got sorted out and the bonus was that I got to talk to Maggie for a few minutes. I thought that was going to be today’s joy spark, and it is—but there’s more.
This afternoon we received word from Amano that our work permits have already been approved and issued—after only 8 days, instead of the 2-4 months we’d been told to expect. So that’s super good news—today’s success #2—but the work permits are quite expensive. As it happens, God clearly knew our work permits would be issued today, because the contribution that Maggie and Dave sent was almost the exact amount we need to pay for the work permits. So if you were praying about our work permits, thank you!
Parting Shot: This is a tale of two hydrangeas. The big hydrangea to the left of our front door is absolutely spectacular—but only every other year. This isn’t one of the years:
You can barely tell it’s even a hydrangea. On the right side of our front steps is a scraggly little hydrangea that has struggled to produce a bloom or two each spring. However, this year it is considerably more successful than its big sister:
