I redeemed my final wellness incentive reward from Cigna for 2016 and I redeemed it for a $100 gift card for Whole Foods, a place I like to shop becus of all the unusual brands and selections, and of course the organic variety. But it's so darn expensive I don't go there routinely.

I hope to squeeze in the trip this weekend.

I was having trouble at work accessing some required compliance training so we wound up getting me updated to Windows 7 and IE version 11 at work. Wow, welcome to the 21st century. I'd been using XP for quite some time.

These days, I am into preserving memories. So I was excited this weekend to find a creative way to reuse an old set of silver-plated flatware I inherited from my grandmother. I used it for everyday use for quite a while (my grandmother only brought it out for the holidays), but some time ago I put it away because I couldn't tell if maybe the silverplate was coming off a bit, and I didn't want to take a chance of accidentally consuming it. So it's been sitting in its box getting dusty in the basement.

When I was much younger and living in Vermont, I bought a cute little windchimee very cleverly made out of vintage forks and spoons. At some point it broke and that was that.

But while browsing Etsy I came across a woman who makes very similar windchimes, and I decided this would be a great way to hold onto at least some of grandma's flatware without feeling like it was just sitting around taking up space and being useless.

I contacted the artisan who was very happy to use my silverware to make 2 sets of windchimes for me. I also wanted to use some of my own favorite beads and some old buttons that my grandmother, a dressmaker, had given me. After polishing up the silver, I shipped all of it out today to the artist, up in Rochester, NY area. Her prices were so incredibly affordable I wondered how she could really justify spending the time doing it, but I guess that's her decision.

So after paying for shipping her out the silverware, the cost of the 2 wind chimes and also for her shipping back to me, it'll come to about $43, which is still fairly reasonable for 2 sets, I think.

Saturday's shaping up to be another busy weekend day. I have a few events I wanted to do with conflicting times, so for the first time, I'm thinking I may skip the bereavement support group. I'm not sure if there's anything else for me to get out of it. I guess I've been 3 times now.

Because after yoga class there's a 2-hour presentation at the library on saving grassland habitat for birds which I'd like to attend.

I recently decided to donate $150 to a local society here in town that's charged with preserving our old town hall which was built with money from the town's benefactress, a single woman and grand-daughter of a prominent judge who was responsible for a number of the town's buildings, like the library. The old town hall, built the same year as my house (1930) contains our town-owned movie theater (one screen) and they're doing fundraising to replace the balcony seats. Thanks to my employer's matching gifts program, the group will get $300 toward the seats and in return I'll get 2 plaques for 2 chairs next to each other and I think some gift vouchers from area businesses.

I live about a mile from the movie theater/town hall and like to catch a movie there when I can. It's a beautiful old brick building with a great deal of character.

You can see it here behind the crowds at a Labor Day parade.



It's where I get my yoga lessons. There are some beautiful murals of local landmarks and historic homes painted by a local artist inside the stairwells.




In this painting, the red barns you see are at the end of my street. It makes it seem very rural, although we're more suburban, really. But we do have some nice old barns on the street; there is one fewer these days, ever since a bad snowstorm caved in the roof of another barn just across the street from the ones you see here.