Yesterday was a day filled with little surprises.

I began my work day with a delivery to the church. The pastor called me into his office to ask whether I had ever thought of going into the ministry. He gave me a book which is given to people along with this question.

"We Methodists are methodical," he said, "We have a whole method for this."

Then I got back to the store and Blessing and I prepared a mailing, a perfect setting for conversation. She told me about the Pink Amazon River Dolphin.

I had never heard of this creature.

Work continued. A teacher came and asked for materials on global warming. 

A parent brought her daughter in to get a stack of grammar books because she had gotten a B in grammar. "You lazy girl," she said. "No more library books for you." She tried to enlist my support in this, saying, "All the time she reads," in a cross voice, but I was on the daughter's side.

#2 son came in from gymnastics just as I was leaving for my class, complaining that he had honey all over his hands. Apparently, they put honey on the bars when they seem too slippery. Like rosin in dance class, I guess. Who knew?

After class, I continued trying to finish Snow Flower and the Secret Fan for book club today. This book seriously creeps me out. I assume that is the author's goal. I did sort of like the idea of having a Day of Sorrow and Worry before a daughter's wedding. Creepy, of course, but there you are sending your daughter off with some guy, and who knows whether he will really take good care of her, and then you don't see her every day the way you used to, and there is no acknowledgement of this because of course a wedding is a happy occasion. Having an official Day of Sorrow and Worry could let the family get it off their chest. Well, maybe a Half Hour of Sorrow and Worry would be sufficient, really.

Actually, I was going to talk with you today about strength training.

If you've ever considered weight training -- and I assume that you have, since "weights two times a week" has been standard advice for almost as long as "cardio three times a week" has -- you might have considered it only briefly before giving up the idea. Not knowing how, not wanting to look silly, and not wanting to get bulky-looking are the most popular reasons for not following this advice.

The bulkiness part is not a realistic concern for women. You need some testosterone to accomplish that with twice a week training. Plus, we are all deer people, horse people, or elephant people naturally anyway (this is the division in my husband's country; you might want to be boring and say ectomorph, mesomorph, and endomorph), and cannot really change that without enormous effort.

The not knowing how part makes a lot of sense to me, and fits in with the not looking silly part. Seeing the trainer at the gym is the best solution, but Kathy Smith and Lotte Berk both have DVDs for weights classes, and there are also books on the subject. And since for weight training it is best to increase weights, not reps, you can use the same routine for years, just increasing the weights.

The main rules are these: use the amount of weight that allows you to do 15 reps and find the last one almost impossible, and work the big muscles first and move down to the little ones.

Looking silly is probably a big obstacle for a lot of us.

I can easily remember #2 daughter and myself scampering around the weight machines at the gym with girlish cries, making fools of ourselves while trying to figure them out. Not everyone wants to go through that. Some people are self-conscious at the gym anyway, without clambering into things that look like farm equipment or medieval torture devices.

But you can do this at home, in privacy, where no one is watching. You can start with soup cans for your weights. When they are too light to provide satisfaction, you can  buy free weights by the pound, like onions, at a sporting goods store. If you want cute girlie-looking ones, you can find them easily at T.J. Maxx or Target.

I am not sure why I wanted to offer words of encouragement about weight training today, apart from the fact that I started out my day that way yesterday and enjoyed it a lot. You just want to share these pleasures, don't you?

I hope you have some surprises today, too!

We did the FAFSA last night. That is the form for requesting government assistance for college costs. In order to fill out this form, I first had to calculate our taxes.

There may be people who enjoy filling out forms. I can imagine someone enjoying it. The pristine page with the tidy little lines and boxes, the satisfaction of putting the right answer into each one...

Yeah, well. That's not me.

Forms give me a headache. I have to read the directions over and over. Sometimes muttering to myself.

"If the number from line 7 is smaller than the result of line 48 on Worksheet B, put the number from line 7 on line 13 and go ahead to line 16."

This is not the sort of thing that should be sprung on someone who can't follow sewing patterns with confidence.

I surround myself with calculators and pencils, as though that would help.

Forms induce uncertainty for me, as well as confusion. Under normal circumstances, I would have no trouble averring that I have not, this year or indeed in any year, received alimony, child support, Aid to Families with Dependent Children, or a railroad pension. If you just came up to me and said, "Did you have any foreign income exclusions last year?" I would answer readily. When it is on a form, though, and I will have to sign my name to it, I find myself reading over questions like these feverishly. As though I might have gotten some nontaxable interest disbursements without noticing it.

I think #1 son, whose FAFSA it was, caught some of this from me.

He read out the parts about being married, single, widowed, divorced, or remarried as though there were some uncertainty about his status that I could help him with. He read the part about selective service out twice.

It's done. That's the good news.

I was indeed The Slave of Duty yesterday, and the day ended -- as does the operetta -- with Unbounded Domesticity.

(If you didn't catch the allusion, then you're not up on your Gilbert and Sullivan.)

I made my sewn FO of the Week, another Kwik Sew 3039.

This was a fabric from SWAP Part II, but the top works well with pieces from SWAP Part I -- which is of course how it is supposed to work.

However, since SWAP Part II is supposed to be for warm weather, a turtleneck may not have been the best choice in the scheme of things, even though it is certainly cold enough now to wear it.

And yes, my family look at me as though I am daft when I do photos like this.

Following the sewing was the knitting. I was attempting to read, but there were going on in the living room all at the same time the following things:

• full volume practicing of blues guitar and harmonica
• television and/or Wii games
• World of Warcraft

All of these things are loud, and involved shouting. I also had conversations with all my female relatives and my Tuesday class leader, all enjoyable in spite of having to conduct them over the loud noises.

My mother used to go into her bedroom and close the door, but I like being together with the family on these afternoons.

I just don't get a lot of reading done.

The book I am showing you today -- Saving Dinner by Leanne Ely -- is not one you sit down and read, but it is a book that I rely on a lot.

Formerprincess had asked a long time ago about fast healthy dinners. I think I mentioned stir-fry and crockpot meals, but I should have mentioned this book. It has lots of fast, easy meals, and all of them are healthy. It also has shopping lists -- if you buy what Leanne tells you to buy, then you can make six dinners, and you won't be thinking "Oh, no, there's no food in the house!" till Friday.

Here's the one I made on Friday.

You mix orange juice, honey, garlic, and red pepper flakes.

You also chop up some cilantro and green onions.

Now, I will tell you frankly that I don't use her proportions. We like things spicy at our house.

But you get those two things mixed up, as you can see in the picture here.

Then put a tablespoon each of butter and olive oil in a skillet. Brown some boneless chicken in that pan, and then throw in the sauce mixture. Cook it a few minutes to reduce the sauce.

Put all the chicken on a dish and sprinkle the green stuff over it.

If you put some brown rice in your rice machine at some point in the day, and then steam up some frozen vegetables, you have a healthy, fast dinner.

Are you thinking that the domesticity does not appear unbounded yet?

Well, I did laundry and dishes and such, but not much cleaning. In fact, there is a grave need of cleaning around here. The GP has moved to the master bedroom. This week is the week to clean the master bath. Usually, this section is pretty light for me. I try to keep my bed and bath pleasant even when the rest of the house is out of hand, so that I will have an oasis.

However, the excessive excitement in my life lately has gotten in the way of that.

Here, in fact, is my bathroom.

Pretty shocking, eh?

This is the "before" picture. I'm planning to clean it thoroughly tonight.

I had planned to clean it thoroughly yesterday. I had intended to have the "before" picture and the triumphant "after" picture. Somehow, taking the "before" picture sapped my will to clean it. It seemed hopeless.

I returned to my knitting.

Happy Monday to all!

It's a soft, rainy day here.

My co-teacher is leading Sunday School today. This is only the second time she has done so. We had originally planned to alternate weeks, but she is out of the country a great deal, working for the One Book Foundation. And when she is in the U.S., she is often visiting other churches and telling them about the work of the foundation, or visiting her far-flung family members, so with one thing and another I have nearly always been the one leading the lesson.

My co-teacher is a sprightly and well-groomed lady of about 70. She was married for 40 years and then, a couple of years ago, was divorced. I can't imagine what, if you were able to live with a person for 40 years, would cause you then to divorce them, but of course I can hardly ask. After the divorce, she took up her current globe-trotting life, and enjoys it immensely.

Her specialization is power point presentations of suffering.

She shows photos of people who are hungry, ill-housed, lacking medical care, desperate for the opportunity to learn to read, and struggling to keep clean and clothed. Then she speaks of how the spirit of God is with them, how generous and welcoming they are, and what steps the One Book Foundation is taking to provide potable water or a school building, or food or medicines, or books.

She is very successful at raising funds.

But I have already seen several of her presentations. I give to the One Book Foundation already. I am having rather more excitement in my life than usual right now, and would welcome a peaceful day. I woke up with a temptation to skip Sunday School.

Do you ever do this? I don't mean do you skip Sunday School. I mean, do you ever shield yourself from unpleasant realities? Change the channel when the news comes on because you feel that you can't do anything about it? Stop people from talking about global warming because you don't intend to do anything about it?

I once did a lecture on the negative stereotypes about the region where I live. I quickly saw that two of the three common stereotypes had obvious historical roots. But the third stereotype, the idea that the people here were lazy, just made no sense at all.

The most cursory examination of the local history showed that people here, including small children, had to work incredibly hard to eke out the most meager living. Where could people have gotten the idea that they were lazy?

As I continued studying, I found that the idea had arisen along with the tourist industry in the early part of the 20th century. At that time, much of our region continued in quite desperate poverty at a time when the visitors from other parts of the nation were experiencing a great economic boom. The rest of the country was not dealing with malaria, hookworm, a shortage of doctors, and schooling only for the most fortunate.

How could they tootle around in their new automobiles, enjoying the picturesque poverty of the natives, unless they figured out some way for that poverty to be their own fault? Thus arose the image of the lazy hillbilly choosing to live in a run-down cabin with no plumbing so that he could spend his time snoozing and drinking. If you are unfamiliar with this stereotype, you can see it even now on old cartoons on TV.

It was, I think, a way for people to protect themselves from having to suffer over the plight of people who had scarcely recovered from the Civil War before being hit with a series of depressions and disasters that continued until after WWII.

Just so, I would like to stay in my cozy house on this gray day until it is time to go sing, rather than being faced with suffering. I'm not in the mood for suffering today.

However, I Am The Slave of Duty. I will go. Maybe she will just present the lesson in the curriculum guide.

I am going to tidy before I leave, in hopes of coming home to a reasonably tidy house. And I will arrange something nice for lunch and plan a pleasant and relaxing afternoon not spent thinking about any of the more exciting aspects of my life right now. Maybe a long walk  if the rain stops, a bit of sewing and knitting, a nice cup of tea....

Enjoy your Sunday!

This is not a good picture, but it clearly shows just how much longer I had to make the sleeves of Pipes. Old sleeve on the right, new sleeve on the left.

Sort of an El Greco effect, isn't it?

I am feeling sort of groggy this morning.

The dog came in at 4:00 a.m. Someone had left her crate unlatched, and I guess she woke up and felt lonely.

So she came in, her tail thwacking around as though she carried a drum set with her, with happy snuffling noises.

Once I identified the source of the sounds and got her back to her sleeping quarters, I was fully awake. But it was only 4:00. So I went back to bed and listened to the rain till I fell asleep.

And woke again at 7:00.

I realize that normal people often sleep until 7:00. But I am now having trouble waking up, and thinking that I will not have time to get the Saturday errands done before work.

So I guess I had better not stay here any more. Onward!

This is what three skeins of Connemara looks like, on its way to becoming a Bijoux blouse.

Yesterday I took some time to work out, and I also watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding and worked on the lengthening of the sleeves of Pipes.

When #1 daughter got engaged, she got us all together to watch this movie, because she said it was just what she knew we would be going through.

No member of the movie families in any way resembles any member of our family, but the culture conflict and the immigrant experience are both captured impressively well. Since we are coping with some of that at our house right now, there was a bit of comfort in watching it.

But mostly I worked on the store website. It was my day off for the week yesterday, so that might have been an error. By Sunday, I may be wishing that I had spent that day in housework and errands, or at least in lolling about. However, I have a sense of urgency about this project, and also it is fun, as new challenges generally are.

So I went ahead and used the day to see how telecommuting would work out.

Taking a Pilates break during the workday is great.

It is also very nice to be home when the kids get home from school. I was able to greet them with some freshly-baked almond shortbread, which is not something you can do from a store.

If you ever want to make shortbread, you will find it very easy. Here are the basic ingredients:

1c. flour
1/2 c. butter
1/3 c sugar

See how they go 1-2-3? That makes it easy to remember. You can be creative with the types of flour and sugar, but don't fool around with butter substitutes. White flour and confectioner's sugar will give you a nice basic shortbread, but rice flour gives a very delicate result, and whole wheat flour or a multigrain mix gives you some hint of nutrition.

You can mix the ingredients with an electric mixer, which makes the whole process very quick and easy. Then you can add other things. Vanilla is classic. The one you see here has almond extract and sliced almonds. You can use finely powdered green tea, dried pineapple and coconut, cocoa powder, dried cherries with almond extract, orange peel, lavender blossoms -- there really is no end to the possibilities.

You don't really end up with a dough, but with a sort of powdery mixture. So it is best to press into into a shortbread pan like this one, or use a cake pan and cut it into wedges.

If you are determined to make it in shapes, you can. You have to sort of pat it out and cut it with your cutters, then very carefully balance it on a spatula and put it on the pan.

Adding an egg makes it less authentic, but is practical if you want to make cookie cutter shapes.

If you make shapes, you can then dip them into melted chocolate and set them on waxed paper to dry. To do this, melt chocolate in your double boiler (or microwave) and stir in a tablespoon of butter. If you don't care about the health issues (and it may be a moot point when you're making shortbread), shortening gives a nice glossy finish, but of course butter has a better flavor.

The boys like having me at home to greet them, and they like after-school snacks hot from the oven, but they are concerned that, if I am working at home some days, it will cut into their computer game time. However, I think I can get in eight hours without inconveniencing them much. I have already warned the family not to think that I can be a full-time homemaker just because I am working at home.

If, of course, that turns out to be what I do. There is still a good deal of suspense on that front.

Perhaps you have been feeling that your life -- composed of music, books, needlework, family, household tasks, a little gentle socializing and work -- is dull. If so, I can suggest to you how to make your life exciting.

First, you must arrange to have your job in jeopardy. Have the company hanging by a thread, so that only a complete change of approach might save it. If at all possible, let the change require skills you conspicuously do not have.

Then, get yourself involved with a bizarre and humorous legal problem. Witnessing a crime would do it, but you can make your own choice here. It needs to be something that requires you to go to the authorities and report it in order to avoid legal complications of your own.

Go ahead and go to the authorities. This isn't a movie or anything, after all.

Now, have your spouse decide that the criminals are going to come and kill the family in retaliation for your having gone to the authorities. He or she should plan to quit work and go into hiding in another state. Naturally, this should involve both the emotional distress of the abandoned family and financial stress. If possible, have the family fear starvation, repossession of the new car the spouse madly bought right before your job got so shaky, and not being able to send a kid to the college that has accepted him. There should also be a continual problem with refraining from bursting into laughter.

You know, it hasn't struck me before that, in movies, when someone rushes around throwing a few things together prior to taking it on the lam, no one ever says, "How are we going to make the car payment if you quit your job and run off to Buenos Aires?"

Saki wrote a story called "The Unrest Cure." I feel a bit like that.

In theory, I have a day off today, since I will be working on Saturday. In fact, I will be trying to make the needed changes at the store website. If there are moments left over in the day, I hope to catch up a bit on the things that always fall off the screen when my life becomes too exciting: housework and exercise. There may also be sewing and knitting and possibly even reading.

A phrase or two from today's entry at the online Lenten Study: "Open yourself to learning new ideas, attitudes, actions, habits. Pray for joy to accompany you during this Lenten season." Insofar as this applies to my work, it is excellent advice. We all agreed yesterday that one thing we need to do is get over the feeling that taking the store online is a wild and wacky idea. Actually, it is perfectly normal nowadays to have an online store. Everybody does it. What's more, we are not a small collective of neophytes selling our handknits, but a group of people who have run a successful physical store for 15 years, with a mail-order catalog for five. We have all the structures in place and probably should have been doing e-commerce for the past decade.

Actions and habits may need changing in the course of the work transition. I worked from my home before, when my children were small. I tended to work all the time -- or, rather, all the available time given that I had small children to care for. One of the pleasant thoughts about working from home again is that I could spend a few early hours at the computer and then go to a Pilates class (scheduled during store hours) or the Prayer Shawl Ministry meeting (also during work hours) and then get back to work. However, I also know that I have already been skipping the gym to fit in a little more of the computer work before I go open the store, so I will have to watch that or I will not have a life beyond my work.

New ideas thus far are all about computers. Of course, I have been using computers for longer than many of my readers have been alive. But I use them for specific things, and now I have to learn new ways to use them. It ought to be the case, it seems to me, that since I know about retail and I know about the internet, doing retail on the internet should not be difficult for me once I get the hang of it. Yesterday I found my way into the bowels of the store website and found this announcement: "Since indexing your site seems to be an exercise in futility..." I had to laugh. Since "indexing" is one of the words I learned over dinner last week, I don't really want to see it in there with the word "futility." Still, a week ago, I would not have understood the sentence, so I took that as progress.

So far, I am enjoying learning about e-commerce. I have learned five things and done them diligently, and I am seeing results. I think this is probably the equivalent of learning "Hola. Como esta usted?" (can't punctuate that correctly) and saying it to everyone you see and having some of them respond with "Bien, y tu?"

That is, I don't even know enough to know what I don't know. But I am being excited and optimistic about it anyway, and that in itself is good for the store. There has been a signal lack of excitement and optimism lately.

However, I have some specific plans and goals for today. I intend to learn how to link things at the website (or whom to ask to do it for me, if that turns out to be the best thing to do), and to install the planned links. I have no idea whether this will take the entire day or whether I can polish it off in a couple of hours and then get on with my encyclopedia assignment.

We'll see.

I had a post telling you about my family crisis -- which was an excellent story -- but my mother made me remove it.

Sigh.

Instead, I will tell you about Lent.

Lent is the 40 days between Shrove Tuesday (Mardi Gras) and Easter. During this time, Christians remember the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness. You might remember some of the stories about that; the part with the devil tempting Christ has been in a movie or two recently.

Not all Christians observe Lent, and there are different ways of doing it.

If you are Catholic, you probably have a list of sacrifices. If you are in the group known, at least to themselves, as "mainstream Protestant," then you probably choose your own sacrifice or discipline for Lent. You may have a group effort or study at your church, or you may choose something in particular to give up or take up, or you may follow any of the many studies published for Lent.

This year, I am doing an online Lenten study.  I have done a couple of others in this way, and have found them satisfying.

If you are some other variety of Protestant, you may not observe Lent at all. Baptists, I think, believe that the observation of Lent is not scripturally sound, and they have a point. The Bible does not say anywhere to give up swearing for 40 days every year, after all.

But Lent can be a very good discipline. If you give up something for 40 days, you may go on to give it up entirely. I found, after struggling through 40 days of giving up being critical of people, that it has been much easier ever since not to be critical.

If you give up something only for the 40 days, with no intention of giving it up permanently, it still reminds you to spend some time in contemplation. The year I gave up tea for Lent, I had many opportunities each day, when I wished for a cup of tea, to be reminded to think of all the things Lent is for thinking of. It is easy, in our modern world, to go for hours and even days without taking any time for contemplation, unless we are reminded.

Lent is a time to think about the areas of our lives that need change. Repentance is not about feeling bad. It is about turning away, turning around, turning to something new. This may involve feeling bad about the old way, but it is much more about a new way. Sitting around feeling miserable about your sins is not the point of Lent. Discipline and sacrifice are not considered desirable in 21st century Hamburger-a-go-go-land, but we might be wrong about that. Forty days to consider the possibility is not too long a time.

Lent is also a time to think about God.

And it is a time to think about other people.

Lent falls during the time of year when the people of Europe and the Americas had less food growing in the garden and less meat left from the autumn butchering, and more people went hungry and needed help. Need is not so seasonal any more, in these days of freezing and importing food, but a reminder of the need for charity is never out of season.

If you keep Lent, then  I hope you will keep a good Lent this year, along with me. If you do not keep Lent, I hope you will enjoy a few moments today, Ash Wednesday, to consider the philosophical issues that Lent brings to mind.

It's Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, Pancake Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday, the day to eat up all the eggs and butter and pate de fois gras in the house before Lent begins tomorrow.

Around here, you can do both Mardi Gras and Shrove Tuesday. You can go to a pancake supper at church, with pancake races and a message on keeping a good Lent, and then mosey on down to the square for unbridled revelry.

Rampaige has been celebrating since Saturday, and Scriveling has probably been at it since New Year's.

I'm not really planning much in the way of Mardi Gras festivities. I have work, and a class, and a little family crisis that will make a great story once it is resolved.

Our motto is, if it's going to be funny in the future, it can be funny now, but there is sometimes a little time lag there.

So at work I have been reading about SEO and stuff like that. I have been playing about with the store blog, trying to get it onto the first page of various likely google searches. I am only up to page two thus far, but I live in hope.

It is a relatively amusing way to spend the workday.

It is Entry and Foyer Week on the GP, so I cleaned out the coat closet. My Foyer comprises three square feet between the Front Porch and the Living Room. I therefore normally let Foyer Week be a continuation of Living Room week.

Deep-cleaning the living room is not usually a key element of a riotous Mardi Gras.

#1 daughter tells me that no one observes Mardi Gras up in the Frozen North. They are missing out on something good.

Unbridled revelry is the key. You know I am a mom, and probably not going to do any unbridled revelry. It will just be pancakes this morning. Maybe sausage. Some speeches to the troops on the foolishness of underage drinking.

The day might get more festive as I go along.

The sermon yesterday was about embracing change. The specific example was the use of the internet. "The decline was good," the pastor said at one point, "because otherwise there would have been no change."  I am not much on signs and omens, but I will not reject a good omen handed to me on a plate.

So I am entering the work week with lots of ideas and enthusiasm, and we'll see what happens.

Following the sermon, there was a baby shower which was a bit odd because the mother-to-be was not present. Showers are not my favorite form of entertainment, though I do go to several of them every year. You sit around in a circle, essentially, eating cake, and then you watch while someone opens presents. This is very dull, to my mind. The only charm in it is seeing the happiness of the recipient. Watching someone open presents for someone else is way too dull. I stayed enough for politeness's sake and then left.

I was intending to get some needlework in.

My guys were watching this show called "Man vs. Wild." A fellow named "Bear" is dropped into the wilderness and then must make his way back to civilization. His camera crew follows him as he has all these dangerous scrapes. If he doesn't have sufficient dangerous scraping going on, he creates some. He flings himself into quicksand in order to demonstrate how to get out of it again. He gets all dirty and removes clothing to reveal his manly form, which is surprisingly free of sunburn and scrapes. He catches a fish and eats it live.

My husband remarked solemnly that that was the wrong kind of fish for that mode of preparation. "You should only do that with bite-size ones," he said.

If you ever do find yourself in the wilderness, you should have someone like my husband along, especially if you don't have a camera crew handy.

I think that the program seeped into my needlework somehow, because I kept having little crises. The buttons for the jacket were too big for the buttonholes.

And you know how much trouble I have with buttonholes. There is no way I will be altering them. I will have to use these buttons for Erin, and buy another, smaller set for the gray jacket.

Then the sleeves of Pipes, which I am making longer -- and therefore, since you decrease as you go on a sleeve, narrower -- got too small for my sleeve needle. I had to switch to dpns, but could only find three in the right size. So I had to knit with three dpns and a sleeve needle.

This is my workbasket, with Pipes out of it, but the colors seemed perfect for SWAP Part II.

I was inspired.

I pulled out some fabrics with similar colors.

These could be good for spring, with a couple of blouse fabrics in the "watercolor" shades that are being recommended for the season.

I decided to make up another turtleneck to keep my sewing on schedule -- I could have finished it yesterday and had my completed sewing project for the week. I laid out the purple fabric.

However, I discovered that I had a few inches too little for the sleeves.

There is, therefore, no completed sewing project for the week.

I continued knitting.

I also continued reading. I am reading Snow Flower and the Secret Fan for book club.

It begins with the narrator's realization that she has always wanted love and never gotten it, and then moves right into a long, detailed, and disgusting description of footbinding, complete with the death from blood poisoning of a six year old girl.

I don't know why we always have to read this kind of thing for book club.

Granted that this really happened, it is not the sort of thing I would read off my own bat on a Sunday afternoon, with the TV displaying one hairbreadth escape after another and my needlework foiling me at every turn.

So I am alternating with Sophie Kinsella's The Undomestic Goddess. It deals with expectations of women's lives, notions of feminity and power, and love. So the two books complement one another well.

That's my story and I am sticking to it.