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January 04, 2004 - Sunday, 9:15 a.m.

It's already Sunday morning. Why do the weekends always slip by so quickly? It snowed most of the day yesterday. A good day to stay home and relax. However I was up and gone by 10 am. I was off to help a new co-worker learn EXCEL. It is always hard when you get a new job that requires your knowledge in something you don't particularly like. He doesn't like computers... but our boss will expect that he can use one. Not too surprizing. The gentleman is quite quiet, but his wife worked in our department for about a year and I helped her as well, so she set it up with me. I stayed for lunch and then was back on the icy roads. I finally got home about 2 in the afternoon. It was still snowing and the roads seemed to be getting worse.

Overall we probably got about 2-3 inches of snow. It is sunny this morning, but still very cold. There are flurries expected through the day. I love the snow. It makes the world look clean somehow. I guess because all the dead grass is covered up with a smooth, pristine, white blanket.

Devotions and classes are this morning. I need to leave in about 1/2 hour for that. Ruhi Classes are at 8:30am. I can't seem to get myself up to go to those. I'd like to attend, but really, I want to be able to start up at the beginning with a group and know that I can attend nearly all the classes. So, my guess is that I won't be attending the early Sunday morning sessions.

I am trying hard to get half of the basement cleared out so my dad can start demolition (with the assistance of my sons). Phil's room is nearly cleared. That was the major part of it, as no one has really used the other two sections of that area of the basement. My plan it to have it cleared before I go to California on Thursday. Ugh!! Lots of work. Though I feel very, VERY lucky to have my Dad willing to work on this project with me. Don't know what I'd do without his help and Kevin's. I'll have to remember to take pictures once the rooms are cleared... so I can reflect on the transformation of it all later.

Last night I spent a quiet evening reading. I am reading... (drum roll please)... The Lord of the Rings Trilogy... (oh ya... bet THAT was a big surprize). I haven't read them since I was in college and took a class called "Forklore, Myth and Fairytales". What an awesome class THAT was. We read 15 books.. including "The Hobbit", "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Chronicles of Narnia" (That was 11 of the books right there)... the others were "The Perlandra Trilogy" by CS Lewis, and "Til we have Faces" by CS Lewis. The instructor was a Medieval English major... and we looked at the themes of these books and compared it with classical literature like "The Bible", Dante's Inferno, Paradise Lost, etc. Absolutely a captivating class. Wish I could take it again, but I don't see it listed in the University Catalog any more. ANYWAY... I am thoroughly enjoying the books... I am about halfway through "The Fellowship of the Rings" at the moment. I'll pack them all in my luggage and take them to California with me.

Well.. I guess I'd better get going and meet the day here.

Later that same day�

I should be working in the basement... but Philip and Justin are asleep. Curtis is up playing computer and I have a terrible case of the 'lazies'. I went to classes this morning and it was very enjoyable. Siamak did the class on the Tablet of Ahmad. I think we covered like a paragraph of it. It was really good, very enjoyable. I love classes that are like that. I once went to a class where we discussed the quote, �The Ocean of My words�� We spent a long time just talking about the word �ocean�. We looked up the word in the dictionary and talked about the definition. Then we talked about what the �ocean� is, and we talked about the feelings it elicits. Such as� the ocean is deep, mysterious, powerful, scary, calming, soothing, exciting, filled with life, the place life on this plant came from, etc� and then we talked about what do all these meanings shed upon the part of the sentence �the ocean of my words�. What does it say about these particular �words�? I love going into the intricacies of meaning that way. It excites the mind and really makes you think.

The day is drifting by. I just talked to my mother. They are headed for an open house at Jean and Don�s. I was planning to go� so now I�ll just ride along with them. That should be a nice afternoon I guess. Then home and� ugh� into the basement I go. I have to get that project to a start point in the basement. A hot bath and more reading tonight, that is my amazingly exciting day.

Later.... M.