a GREAT weekend

We had a wonderful weekend away. A couple on our worship team had been in touch with the church they used to attend before they moved here two years ago, and their church invited our team to come over this weekend (four hour drive one way). We got away late morning on Saturday, traveling with Jim's sister, whose husband wasn't able to make it (he's not on the team exactly, but he had hoped to come along). The pastor there had arranged billets for the various team members, and the three of us stayed with an older couple who *retired* off the farm 25 years ago. Lest you (correctly) think that must make them fairly old, the gentleman did tell us that his mother is still alive in a local nursing home, at the age of 99! Anyway the Johnsons made us a fabulous dinner, and then we met the rest of our team at the church to set up sound equipment and run through the set. It took more than just me to figure out how to turn their sound system ON, but once the appropriate switches had been located, things went a little smoother! Because of the time zone change, our bodies thought church started at 9:30 this morning, which was a bit challenging, especially as Mrs. Johnson thought that an appropriate breakfast would be pancakes, bacon AND eggs (at 7). Jim almost never eats breakfast at all, but he plowed gallantly through some of it anyway (being as there was coffee...)

We had set up 23 songs on powerpoint including a wide range of music from country style gospel to older hymns to a lot of more contemporary worship songs. It was absolutely fabulous; the people there really enjoyed it and sang along when they knew them (most of the time). It was very refreshing.

The weather was hot, and sis's car does not have air conditioning, so we were a little wilted by the time we got home tonight! But...we'd do it again in a heartbeat. :)

Last night when I was having trouble sleeping in a strange bed, I thought of some great plot twists for Book 2 in Shann and Taafa's universe. Some things that will probably happen will not be very nice. I have to figure out a realistic timeline and see if I can get book 2 pretty much done while Taafa is still pregnant. There's a lot of distance involved on donkey-back, so I'm not sure it's all feasible. I was eventually able to turn the tap off in my brain and get a bit of sleep, though, so I'll just keep these thoughts stewing on a back burner. They mesh nicely with my earlier glimpses (yes the border-guard-without-a-name and Juumat-the-nasty-x will show up again), so I may have something worth pursuing. But not yet. I have a lot of things to do before I'm ready for another first draft. I'll see if it has gelled into anything before Nano, and maybe I'll start it then.