Little Brothers Rock!

Yesterday was a good day, as many of them are in my very charmed life. During lunch I continued to work on the Rune Poem, with a lot of help for Arthur Shipkowski (MA for ADF). I combined the three extant Rune Poems (Icelandic, Norwegian & Anglo-Saxon) and made some adjustments to the underlying Anglo-Saxon. It was fun. Thanks Art. Also, Julie provided the final script for Friday's ritual, and it looks great!

Second on the list, Erik from the College of Stoic Philosophers (and the New Stoa) responded to my assignment and proceeded to send the next one (on Sellars' book 'Stoicism')! But in the interest of the holidays, he gave me an additional week to get it done. More fun, but since I have already done quite a bit of work on Sellars, at least this first assignment should be easy.

André was over last night to help me work on the hallway floor. Thanks to him, we were able to get quite a bit finished! The best part of the night was when he looked at what I had accomplished already and said, "You did all this in two nights? That is incredible! This is freaking hard work!" We spent the balance of the evening (with short breaks for dinner, Christmas cookies, and picking up loved ones) ripping, cutting, marking, laying, slapping, smacking, sweating, cursing, re-marking, re-cutting, re-cursing, and in the end achieved a work of art! Still needs to be finished, and with the accumulation of responsibilities over the next several days, the completed floor may end up being more delayed than I would like, but we will be plugging away at it.

Pam has been getting the Saturnalia ritual ready for Saturday (How appropriate!) It is looking great too. We have some elements to pick up tonight while we are out for Lin's NATS rehearsal (see above regarding accumulating responsibilities).

Finally, one of those moments occurred last night. You know, the moments that lasting memories are made of. While André and I were working away at the floor, Pam decided that she was going make Christmas cookies with Katie (pictured here) who was also there (as was Bill, who had gone to hang out with Josh and Derrick). They measured and mixed and blended and baked away happily as they chatted away, making small talk. Katie kept tasting the frosting while they waited for the dough to chill. When the dough was ready, Bill came up and helped them cut the cookies into shape. A few short baking minutes later and the cookies were ready. Pam called out to everyone in the house (André was gone to get Chantal at this point) and in moments the table was surrounded with laughter and sprinkles and frosting. Everyone was into it, including Derrick and Josh! As soon as Emilie found out (she was at work) she asked to be picked up so she could join in the fun. At that point, everyone stopped, mid-cookie as it were, and the fun resumed unabated when she joined the table. We have pictures, and a little video. The cookies will likely only last a few days. But, because Pam was open to an opportunity, we also have a wonderful memory, as do the kids. Thanks, my love, for making life flavourful.