The flowers are bought and in the house, and I set back out on the road to Ron's to pick up some wrapping paper. He wouldn't let me buy my own the past two days when we were out shopping as he has lots of it and wants me to use his. When I get there, he and Nelson have just arrived home from the gym. The plan is to go to Pinocchio's for lunch. As the boys shower and get ready I use Ron's iPad to check the Lifetime Movie Network to see if I can stream On Strike for Christmas now that I am in the states and I can. So I watch some of it until it's time to go. We head out to lunch and I have a burger and we all have 'bottomless champagne' with orange juice. Ron spends most of his time on the iPad trying to book a van for our trip into LA tomorrow as the rental agency has just called to say they won't have one for us as they're all booked up. He is successful and so we are good to go tomorrow. Once lunch is over we head to the dollar store so that I can get a gift bag and, of course, that's not all I buy. Everything in the store is one dollar and there are a few bargains. I pick up a car air freshener because when I got in to my car this morning, it smelled like a fish had died in it overnight. Not sure why but it was most unpleasant and I need it gone.
Once we are done shopping we head back to Ron's and I select a roll of wrapping paper from his stash and head back to my place. I need to get all the gifts wrapped but first I get on my laptop and continue watching On Strike and finally see my Knitting Consultant credit. So great! I then go about adding the credit to my IMDB page. The movie is really well done, I think, and has a hilarious scene with the guys trying to bake cookies.The movie ends I finally get down to the business of wrapping gifts. It takes a couple of hours and when I am done I go into the family room to chat with Bob and Ada. After 15 minutes or so I can hear a phone ringing and it sounds like it's coming from my room. Bob gave me a spare cell phone they have for me to use while I am here so that I can take calls from Ron without using up all of my 15 minutes of roaming charges I paid for before I left home. I run to get it and just miss the call so I call him back and he asks "Is this where I can order a Bible? Is this the Gideons?" I laugh and then he says, "Hold for the Duchess of Milton." The duchess is a wonderful man by the name of Michael Rowe, a well known author from Toronto and someone I often verbally spar with on FaceBook over politics and religion. Michael gets on the phone. "I would like to order one religious fanatic to be delivered to the Oliver household as soon as possible." I laugh and tell him that they are both crazy. "But how long will it take for you to get here?" Ron had earlier told me that Michael and his partner would probably be tired and cranky from their long day traveling from Ontario and not be in the mood for company tonight. Apparently that's not the case and they want me to come over. So I pack up the gifts that I have just finished wrapping and head out.
It ends up being a wonderful evening of light banter that eventually turns into a lively discussion and debate about Christianity, false Christians, faith, miracles and a host of other related topics. It's a perfect evening and I am loving it. And, one great thing that comes of it is that, on Christmas Eve, we are all going to head over to a nearby church (that Liberace used to attend regularly) for their special Christmas service so that we can sing carols.
Church Liberace AttendedRon Oliver. In church. I can hardly wait.
