September is over and the rain arrived last night...

Here we are in Oregon. It's raining and that makes the container garden look positively gorgeous!

This past month I was called for Jury Duty and reported in, but was not selected for a jury. The lawyers asked me if I could be unbiased in dealing with a man who drove (alledgedly) after drinking alcohol, hitting a car and injuring a mother and child? I said if he was drinking, he was guilty and the lawyer asked "Even if it is only alledged?" And I said, "They tested his alcohol level, didn't they?" He said they weren't ready to get into that yet. So I was excused.

That freed up our schedule to go down to Ashland for the Shakespeare Festival. We stayed at a great place, The Windmill Inn, which--we heard--is going condo or timeshare the first of November or when it reopens. Too bad--we liked it and would have returned. We actually didn't see any Shakespeare, most were sold out. We did get tickets to "Tartuffe" which we enjoyed immensely, it was a modern version, but not really contemporary, just updated. We also were fortunate to see "Gem of the Ocean" which is August Wilson's latest; he wrote "The Piano" and "Fences." It was wonderfully touching, with characters fully developed and we both felt it was an outstanding performance.

Coming home, we stopped at the 7 Feathers Casino for lunch and lost $4 in those dumb 1-cent and nickel machines. They have taken all the fun out of it. You can't put coins in, it's all paper, and there isn't even a handle to pull down--which was always fun! We won't try that again!

We have made some good friends from the Unitarian Church and they invited us for dinner one night. We played Kings Corners and Rummikub (that's how it's spelled on the box) and before we left, we planned to go with them to see a new play opening at the Hult in the Soreng Theatre.
So we did that last week, with a third couple we all knew, with dinner at Fifth Street Market first. Then we walked down to the Hult to see "A Body of Water," a new play by Lee Blessing which explores the relationship between memory and identity. Great for senior citizens!

Now I am working on another cookbook, this one for Our Savior's Lutheran Church. We have someone to do all the data entry; Dorothy and I are proofreading, and we hope to have it published locally and ready by the holidays. I also joined a Writers' Workshop which meets every Thursday afternoon and it has been great fun, meeting new people, and being motivated to write something every week.

Conrad is working on potpourri for holiday gifts. The roses are still blooming and he gathers all the petals from those we bring into the house. Pastor has asked him to read a Christmas program and evaluate it. Conrad said, "How can we have a program since we have no children in the congregation?" "Well," the Pastor said, "This is one with all adults." (Who knew such programs even exist?) And today Conrad signed up to go to Good Samaritan Home to help with Bingo this Saturday. More on that later!

Just wanted to bring you all up to date. You probably think we are snoozing here and growing older every day. Let me tell you now, that will never happen!

We love reading all your posts and about your activities! Let's keep this going!
Mom and Dad

What does Aunt Judith do with her time?

Good question. You know, of course, that I garden and play with the dogs--frequently playing with the dogs while I garden which is really inefficient but the dogs love it. In addition, I actually have several "serious" activities that occupy lots of my retirement time.

First, last year at this time I was asked to be the secretary for my church's non-profit foundation. That means 6 meetings per year plus an annual congregational meeting, lots of minutes to transcribe, type, and distribute, and correspondence related to donations (received and gifted to agencies, organizations, and/or individuals). While it sounds rather ho-hum, I enjoy working with the President of the Foundation. He and I worked together years ago when he was President of the Church Council and I was Secretary of that group. Don't be misled into thinking that this makes me highly religious. I attend about as many church services as I do foundation meetings.

Second, I joined one of the local Lions Clubs after I retired and have been actively involved in that as Bulletin Editor, Website Manager, and member of the Board of Directors. The organizational structure for Lions is such that local clubs in a vicinity are linked together into Districts and Districts comprise the State Council. I mention this because last January at the District Convention I was elected to serve as one of four District Trustees to the Oregon Lions Sight and Hearing Foundation. The job became official as of July 1, 2007. In broad terms I serve as a liaison between the State Foundation and the local clubs. Specifically, it means that I attend 4 Foundation meetings as well as some committee meetings (my committees have yet to meet). I also have 9 local clubs that I must visit and present info on the Foundation. I made my first presentation to one of "my" clubs last week. Shades of being a college professor again--complete this handouts. This week I will be presenting on a different topic to the representatives of 18 different clubs, some of which are "my" clubs--again handouts and transparencies. I'm working my way up to a Power Point presentation which I have ready, but don't have a laptop to use for the presentation. Trustees are sort of "on-call" to contact/meet with their clubs whenever the Foundation has a need to disseminate relevant information.

All the stuff keeps me as busy as I want to be most of the time and busier than I would like to be sometimes.

Tim's Football Game

Tim's Freshman team won on Saturday 35 to 13. Tim had 2 tackles and 2 fumble recoveries (1 was a forced fumble.) GO DEMONS!

Finally Getting With The Program

Hi Grosenick Family Members,

Your dear old auntie Judith has finally found the time to join the family blog. Life has been busy especially with Lions Club activites. I will fill you in on the details in the next couple days. But for now, I just wanted to say hi to all.

Your dear old auntie

Kitty and Andrew's Triumph Club Link

http://www.rockymountaintr.org/herald_current/september2007herald.pdf

This link will download our Triumph Club Newsletter, which has lots of pictures of the Gunnison Car Show (pictures by Andrew) and other people (Kitty) you may recognize. Enjoy!

Tommy's Lacrosse

This is a shot of Tommy from his Summer LAX Jamboree. Tommy's team made it all the way to the championship Game (3 days of Tournement Games) and C and C survived it all. Tommy's team lost 2 - 1 in overtime. It was only their 2nd loss the entire season.

Janiesch/Topper Activities

Andrew and Kitty are working for First American REO Servicing. Andrew is working under contract until Nov and Kitty received an offer for a permanent position. She'll switch from temp to perm on 9/9/07.

Tim loves high school and playing football. Tommy is in 4th Grade and really likes his teacher. Tommy finished his summer Lacrosse league and we're looking for a fall or winter league to join.

Andrew and Kitty spent last weekend at the Gunnison Car Show. They traveled with members from their Triumph club. Last night they went to see BB King's Blues Festival at Red Rocks. Tomorrow they will take Tim and friends to the Projekt Revolution Tour concert at Coors Amphitheater. Tim is really looking forward to seeing Linkin Park and My Chemical Romance.

Tim is playing Freshman Football. He's 1st string Defensive End and on offense, 2nd string tight end. His team won their first game last night. Tim had 1 sack, 5 tackles for Loss and 1 fumble recovery. He was very excited and a little stiff this morning.