Finally, my charge entered as a table opened up. We exchanged pleasantries, sat down, opened up her books, and began reviewing the math lesson to prepare her for the GED exam. We discussed multiplying and dividing decimals for 30 minutes. All in a day's work before I headed to work myself.

Some local nonprofits and businesses are faltering in this economy. I trust that God will provide ways for us to build community even in the hard times ahead.

Dorchester Bike Club: This Sunday is the Hub on Wheels. Heidi and I will tackle the 50-miler. Apparently it's like RAGBRAI, with breaks, bands, and beer, only I won't bet on seeing the man in the banana bike or the best pork chops on the planet.

Boston Metro Church Softball: After a stunning walkoff victory against the top team in our division, the CTK Dorchester Shawmutts are set to gut it out for a playoff spot. Heidi concluded that we won because we "played within ourselves." Could we also credit the majority of women on our team? Must be a connection there. 6 women, 3 men. The other team fielded about 900 men. Just sayin...

FLC choir: To get our church choir fix. And our Bach fix.

CTK Dorchester: Church! Small group meets on Thursday for the first time this week. The agenda for our first day is party-planning. I say we celebrate Columbus Day for once. Who's with me?

I could never replace swaying in the rain to Fake Plastic Trees with Hope and Jane in Atlanta '03. Nor could I replicate the close quarters clubbish atmosphere of the Bank of America Pavilion experience in '06.

But the luxury of hearing the entirety of In Rainbows, plus heavy-hitters like Paranoid Android, National Anthem, and, of course, How to Disappear Completely, places this concert at the top of the podium in the Olympics of my heart. Dareisay my eyes welled up during Videotape? Then Thom Yorke drooping over the piano for a surprisingly beautiful song from Eraser evoked a similar feeling.

Check out the House of Cards video that came out last month:

Apparently Monday was the third-hardest day in the history of this ride. Since then, the rides have felt easier, but headwind makes everything difficult. I feel as though I'm dragging a brick from my back wheel.

Just feasted on a meal prepared by relatives and friends from Cono. I'll post full highlights from the week when I get back, as I did last time..

"The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places..."

The characters' 19th century British circumstances don't resonate with me, but their psychological dispositions do. I especially like the Rector at the end talking sense to Sir James, who opposes Dorothea's marriage to poor Ladislaw: "Like many men who take life easily, he had the knack of saying a home truth occasionally to those who felt themselves virtuously out of temper."

I have enjoyed my time at B.U. The summer in London was what originally attracted me, and that proved absolutely worthwhile. I've been under the tutelage of experts and feel privileged.

But I am now a master (mistress) and don't plan on ever returning to school.

Now back to reading Middlemarch.

This is Jonathan and me at the U.S. women's Olympic trials on Sunday morning. They looped through downtown Boston, across the river to Cambridge and back again, several times adding up to 26.2 miles:

We ate Sunday brunch at the Deluxe Town Diner in Watertown - ah memories! I reminded the owners who I was, and they cheerfully remembered their former waitresses Hope and Tami, the best in the business:

Ben at the 25th mile. He finished 235th overall and, even better, smoked Lance Armstrong by 8 minutes. We cheered from our lazy spots on the Comm Ave median:

The silver sea of finishers in Copley Square:

A couple highlights from the weekend, besides the marathon itself: we had a pasta party at our house Sunday night, sauce courtesy of Lutheran choir friends/Ben's grad school friends Chris and Anne, and are now indulging ourselves in the leftovers. Three sauces - one with capers, olives and tuna, one with chicken, spinach, and cinnamon, one with veggies - mmmmm. Also, the weekend seemed to be full of praise songs that rotated through our heads, and at one point we turned the forgettable tune "Come Now is the Time to Worship" into an unforgettable a capella chorus full of soft, rich harmonies. I never thought it could sound so good.

Ten things that make me angry, week of 1/13-1/20 [I recorded only three]:

1)The way that my cousin ignores me when I try to give him a friendly 'point' greeting.

2)People laughing at non-humorous parts of a movie and then trying to explain an already obvious joke.

3)The boy in CHOW Art and Music who, after hearing a well-known Beethoven sonata, shouted, 'Can anyone tell me what movie this song was in?'

Ten things that please me, week of 1/13-1/20 [again, only three]:

1)When friends who I didn't even have last year call me regularly by my first name.
2)The cup of Ghirardelli hot chocolate given to me by my roommate after a cold day.
3)Waking up to a square of sunlight fixated on my Radiohead poster to the left of my bed.

A Waitress Who Rhymes:

"Amanda always came into work singing, and after fifteen years of waitressing she had grown too accustomed to the nauseating smells of hot oil and bacon grease. In fact, she was in the middle of a project to announce the menu to patrons in a unique way - she made it rhyme.

'A bit of lamb goes well with lime jam,' she once told a customer. 'And how about some tea with your broccoli?' That particular customer accepted the rhyming gleefully and laughed. But not all of them did.

It was an old, stodgy man who first resented the playfulness. Amanda approached him and chanted, 'Today our special is venison stew. A nice side dish would be honeydew!' He grunted. 'And juice with goose would spruce you loose. How 'bout it?"

He frowned. 'Just stop the nonsense, okay? Bring me some breadsticks for a starter.'

'Might give you gas you cranky old farter!'"

(Foreman added that last line himself.)

Boston.com's 20 ways readers save is full of good ideas. I especially like the homemade dog food.