Snow In View . . . O! The Joy

O! The joy! Last night we got a dusting of snow. Enough to make everything almost white again! I am so happy. This morning I went out and filled all the bird feeders and it was just gorgeous. Actually, it is quite funny. Yesterday it was in the 50s and I was wearing short pants. A huge storm blew through though, even had tornadoes. We could hear the sirens from Fredericktown and Dad's work had to go into the shelters!

I am happy about the snow. We had oatmeal and hot tea for breakfast and I am wearing a new long sleeve shirt. Fun, fun, fun.

"For to the snow He says, 'Fall on the earth,'. . . " - Job 37:6

New Memory

Oh, boy! Am I really happy today! The RAM in my computer has been dying all year and we finally ordered some new sticks which arrived a few days ago. Yesterday, I cleaned out my desk and pulled the CPU up onto the dining room table. While waiting for Mom to help me I decided that I could at least clean the dust out of it, so I took the case off and vacuumed it and cleaned the fans. Then I decided that I could at least remove the old memory. Since nothing bad happened when I did that I decided to go ahead and put the new ones in myself. A little nervous, but it went smoothly and I put it back together and plugged it in and, guess what? It worked! I couldn't be happier! Also, the computer is so fast now! I can open multiple screens and hopefully it won't crash any more.

"Assault In Norway" and Chicago and the Atom

This past month I read one of the BEST books ever! "Assault In Norway: Sabotaging the Nazi Nuclear Program" by Thomas Gallagher. Every night as I am sitting on the sofa I see this book on the shelf next to us. It really sticks out. It is one of those that I am always saying "Oh, I need to read that one day", and then never do. Well, I have been watching "Edge of Darkness" (a 1943 film starring Errol Flynn and Ann Sheridan about Nazi occupied Norway. A must see film, by the way!) and really wanted a book about WWII Norway. One glance at the shelf and there was "Assault in Norway", just waiting. I decided I would read it and, Boy! What a book! No piece of fiction could ever be half as exciting as this. It 's the story about a group of Norwegian commandos who have to blow up the Nazi's heavy water factory in the mountains of Norway. I can't say enough about it. The author wrote fiction as well as nonfiction and it really makes for enjoyable reading. Every character comes off the page for you as you are reading and you can't put it down! At least, I didn't. I finished it in three evenings. Who cares about watching movies? This was much more exciting! (I know I am using a lot of exclamation points, but this book is worth it!) It really is an amazing story and you can really see God's hand in the entire mission which shouldn't have turned out like it did! But, I won't spill it, you just have to read the story.

When I had finished it, I just couldn't get my mind off of it. Very gripping really! So, I am sitting at my computer a few days later (probably still thinking about it) and Mom and Sarah are looking up old sterling silver charms on eBay. All of a sudden I hear Mom saying what an odd charm she found with atoms flying around a Chicago university building. My ears pricked up. It turns out that there was some sort of Chicago bracelet that had charms commemorating different historical things in Illinois and one of them is commemorating the first self-reacting atomic pile that was built on a squash court in the University of Chicago right at the same time as the commandos were in Norway. There was an entire section in my book about this pile and the scientist who built it. Boy, was I thrilled! So, we tried bidding on it, but lost. So, another came up and another and we finally won one last Thursday. It arrived in the mail today and I couldn't be happier about it! Imagine finding a charm to match my new favorite book all about heavy water and atomic research and Norwegian commandos! Not exactly the most popular subject to commemorate with a sterling silver charm.

Ann Blyth and Richard Bonynge Autographs

We cam home yesterday from the Chiropractor's and waiting for us in the mail box were two fan mail responses! We haven't gotten any back lately and Sarah and I were just talking about that saying that we should really write some more letters. Now, to find two waiting for us! Thrilling! The first we knew was one of our US actresses who we had mailed last month (because it came in our SASE envelope. Brilliant deduction isn't that?) but the second was a mystery. Actually, Sarah got the mail while I was getting stuff out of the car and she shows me this little white envelope and says it's from France. (Actually, it was from Switzerland) I couldn't think of anybody who I had sent to in France. The mystery fan mail . . .

The large envelope turned out to be from Ann Blyth. She sent our photos back beautifully signed and personalized. We couldn't be happier. She is in one of my favorite stories, "The World in His Arms". She is the perfect Russian princess. If you haven't seen the film yet, it is worth getting! The book is a little harder to find. Actually quite rare. I did finally get a copy last month. Really fun! Sarah and I were really excited to get her autograph as she doesn't always sign your photos, so this was a fun surprise. She is a great actress and has a very pretty singing voice.

The small white envelope turned out to be from Opera Conductor Richard Bonynge (Dame Joan Sutherland's husband). I had found an address for his agent in New York and figured it couldn't hurt to write a letter. He sent back a beautiful 4x6 photo that was signed and personalized. So very, very exciting! I had written to Joan Sutherland several years ago and she had sent back a beautiful photo. So now I have both of them! I am going to put both photos together in my scrapbook. I am so thrilled!