Another Beautiful Weekend . . . Lots to do!

This was another great weekend. On Friday night, Greg and I went to the symphony at Heinz Hall. Pinchas Zukerman was conducting three Mozart pieces. They were all great; and the featured performer was a pianist named Benjamin Hochman playing Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 17 in G. It was a lovely concert and a great evening with my sweetie.

Saturday was the Federated golf outing that usually happens on Good Friday. This year, Easter was so early that the outing was postponed until May 31. While this golf outing has a history of rain and cool weather, we thought we might have sneaked by having it on a different weekend. But on Friday, the weather forecast was calling for thunderstorms on Friday night and all day Saturday. When I got up Saturday morning, Kathy B. from my foursome called to say that it had been raining since 4:30 a.m. and that there was a tornado watch for our area until 11 a.m. We made several calls trying to decide whether to drive the 45 minutes to the course for our 9:30 tee time given the conditions. But by 8 a.m., the storms were moving south of Pittsburgh and things were looking better.

We gathered at our rendezvous spot and got to Birdfoot Golf Course by 9 a.m. under cloudy skies. In the picture above, you can see me, Sue, Linda, and Kathy B. right before we started our round. We were about 15 minutes late teeing off because of a weather delay. Otherwise, it just got more and more beautiful outside the longer we played! It turned out to be a great round and a fun time. The course was really beautiful as well. I had never played there; and it is definitely a place I'd go again. The only warning I have is to watch out for the long par 5 on number 13. It is a KILLER!

Greg and I spent Saturday evening reading on the porch and eating kind of a "grazing" dinner. Then we watched a movie and turned in. This morning, we went to the early service at church because I had signed up to help with a service project with my sisters at Zonta Three Rivers North. (You will remember them from February when I wrote about the Glass Slipper Ball.)

The project we were working on today was to assemble and pack 1,000 birthing kits for poor women in a coastal area of Peru (South America). The infant mortality rate in this area is well over 30 percent due to unsanitary conditions and lack of medical facilities. Most of the births take place in subsistence-level "houses" with no running water and no electricity. The kits we put together were packed in Ziploc bags and contained sterile sheets, gloves, gauze, ties, and soap to assist the women in a clean delivery.

My shift was 1-3 p.m. this afternoon. I rode down to Duquesne University where one of our Zontian's had access to a large OT lab on campus that we were using for the assembly and packing. Here we put on hair nets and sterile gloves and created little assembly lines to pack and seal the kits. It was a great time working and chatting. And the group of Zontians and the volunteers from Girls Hope and everybody there were so pumped up about actually doing something to help make women's lives a little better clear down in Peru.

While I am talking about helping people, I want to also mention that our good friend, Bill A., from Northway Christian Community is leaving this coming Thursday for a month in China and Thailand. His first stop is a village in China that was hit by the earthquake last week. Northway has some missionaries on the ground in this region who were unhurt by the quake itself. They have been providing relief for the many people affected by the earthquake. Bill is going over to help and deliver funding and support.

On the related topic of helping others, I need to tell you about a book I'm reading. I bought a mystery story to read on the airplane a couple of weeks ago when I flew to San Diego. I finished that book in the evenings while I was at the conference, so I was browsing through the bookstore at the San Diego Airport looking for something else to read. I ended up buying a copy of "Three Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. This is a true story about Greg Mortenson and his work in Pakistan and Afghanistan over the last ten years. Greg is the son of a missionary who was raised in Tanzania. His father founded the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center. (I know some people in Beavercreek who have been to this hospital.) It is so exciting to see how an ordinary guy has made such a tremendous impact in these places by building schools and investing in the people of this region. Best of all, he is educating girls in a place where the cultural norm is for women to be denied an education. Anyway, I am still reading this book; but I highly recommend it to you. Check out this book if you get a chance!

And finally, here's a tribute to my BFF, Sue, who has been my friend since ninth grade. That would be about 40 some years. Sue's birthday was last week; and she is still one of my most tenured and dearest friends.

Have a great week!