Subject: Weekend Update: January 31-February 2, 2003
Date: Mon, 3 Feb 2003 15:09:02 -0500

Emily Pearl Metcalfe celebrated her 17th birthday on Friday (1/31)
by going out to dinner with two of her friends, Liz Rand and Eric
Ranstrom.  What she did not know was that dinner was a ruse by
her friends to get her out of the house.  Emily's friends plotted
with Joy to hold a surprise birthday party at our home.  They
hung streamers and brought in party foods.  Joy provided the
birthday cake; she had won it at the grocery store by participating
in a promotional "Cake Walk".  Emily was completely caught off guard
when she walked into the barn; a very successful surprise and a
very happy birthday.

Since we have been transferring old home video to DVD, we showed
Emily's friends pictures of Emily in her diaper and little else,
dancing around the living room, doing "Ring Around the Rosie" and
her "Butterfly" dance. We now remember why my nephew Tommy referred
to Emily as a walking, talking knick knack.  We may pull these,
and other gems out for her graduation next year.  We're into 1988
now and Andrew has finally made the scene in our review of the past.

On Saturday morning, Joy, a dozen eggs, and I went over to Rich and
Wendy's house for breakfast.  Rich made lots of delicious bacon and
Wendy made the eggs and toast.  We caught up on some conversations
that we'd missed in the past few weeks.  The phone rang and Richard's
brother Louie told us to put on the TV; the Space Shuttle Columbia
just blew up.  In a few short minutes, we found out all we needed
to know; a break-up on re-entry at 12000 miles per hour - no chance
for survivors.  In 1986, I was running an errand on my lunch hour
with the radio on listening the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger
when it blew up.  The sad part about this disaster is that, like many
Americans, I was not even aware that we had a shuttle mission in space
for the prior 16 days; they had once again become commonplace.

Back at home, I took advantage of milder temperatures and thawed out
the barn furnace pump to get it working again.  I also made my
way out back in shin-deep snow to prune the grape vines.  With
a diagram in my pocket on how I should prune them, I clipped off
more branches than I had before.  I told Joy that I pruned them
like her father would have.

Andrew and his friends played a game of football in the shin-deep
snow.  They trampled the sideyard but they enjoyed themselves.
Not without a price, however, because Andrew's feet were frozen
when he came in.

Meanwhile, Joy is helping Jessica with a lot of the wedding plans,
hunting down caterers, florists, and prices, as well as sewing the
bridesmaid dresses.  We're going to set up a sewing center in the
loft so that she can leave it a mess and off limits to Kayla.
Andrew and Joy have been having a pinball competiton of late, so
I wonder if Cactus Jack's will be a distraction to Joy, or a welcome
diversion from time to time.  Jessica wasn't feeling well on Saturday,
tossing her cookies before she could reach the bathroom at college.
She was feeling a bit better afterward, however. 

I was supposed to reassemble the scaffolding for Miranda to continue
her mural, but Miranda was nursing a cold all day and my feelings of
being industrious were left out with the discarded grape vines.

A wet, slushy snow canceled the 9:30 service at church on Sunday
morning, presumably to get some of the slush out of the church
parking lot. This gave our readying family an extra couple of hours
before leaving for the 11:00 service. With Liz and Eric staying
overnight, the extra time meant that eveyone could have a warm shower.

Mark