…the time has come to talk of many things: of shoes and ships and sealing wax, of cabbages and kings…

Last week I didn’t work at all, so Henry’s dad asked me to help fix up the house they bought. Mrs. Bosch and I went through and cleaned everything in preparation for painting, and decided on colours. Then on Thursday and Friday, Jess DeHaas and I painted all the cabinets in the kitchen. It’s incredible what white melamine does to instantly make a kitchen look fresh. We also prepped some walls for painting. The guys did a good deal of yard work, and it looks so much better already. On Saturday I went there in the afternoon and hung around to help out a bit too. We had a watermelon-eating contest of sorts on the front lawn later. Won’t say who won.

Sunday was a good day, spending time with Henry and his family and friends. I’ve often thought how wonderful it is that as Christians God has given us such an advantage over non-Christians in a day of rest. So many of my co-workers work anywhere from eight to twelve days before they have a day off. Some of that is personal choice, of course, but still. God has provided us with one day out of seven in which we can relax and not worry about work. We have the time to concentrate on worshipping God and fellowshipping with our fellow man. Then we can return refreshed in mind and body to work for another week. I can see the strain that so many people put themselves under when they work ridiculous amounts of days in a row. And the "great" thing about Canada is that I can say, "It’s against my religious convictions to work on Sunday." All right, I know that’s a lame one, but still, Canada’s super-political correctness is in a way a blessing to us.

I am still working at Ricki’s and Bootlegger in Westland Market Mall in Spruce Grove. Today was my third shift this week. I worked on the Bootlegger side of the store today and yesterday. It was interesting just to be thrust into the middle of that. I found it really hard at first to locate things. It’s a very good thing most of the jeans have a name, like the girls’ jeans Gwyneth, Aiko, Renee, and Jewel, and the guys’ jeans Ben, Mike, Smith, and Mark. Otherwise I would have been absolutely lost. Today was not without interest, especially as this afternoon we had a shoplifter. Two girls asked for a fitting room, and I opened one for each. They left without buying anything, and a few minutes later my manager came to me and asked if I would recognize them again. She had two empty earring cards in her hand that she found under the bench in the one room. I spotted them walking past soon after, and pointed them out. My manager shadowed them for a little while. She later told me that she was walking behind them, and the one girl dropped one of the earrings by mistake. She bent down and picked it up, and said, "Oh, did I drop this? Is it mine?" The other girl was too scared to say anything, as she noticed my manager behind her. She came back soon after, and said she’d lost the two girls. She asked me to remember them if I could, so we can keep an eye on them later. We have a "code word" for people we are iffy about or who have been suspected of shoplifting before. When one of us spots a person like that, or if they glimpse someone doing something worthy of suspicion, we can say "Elvis" into our radios. The only problem is that I didn’t get a good look at their faces. Hmmmm. Well, we’ll see how good my memory is. I am working tomorrow again.

Tomorrow night is Mike and Trish’s reception to celebrate their wedding. Looking forward to that. In other words, this is as much as I am writing at the moment, as I will be having another busy day and probably weekend as well. I really will do better to keep anyone interested up to date on my goings on, I will. :-)