When we were at Seaside, Oregon a bit over a month ago, we stepped into an art gallery that carries Greenwich artists. I had seen and admired Cassandra Christensen Barney‘s work in catalogues, but hadn’t seen it in person yet. This little gallery had quite a few of her canvases up on the wall and I really liked them. They’re so serene. Nate asked if I wanted one, but I said no because I knew our huge, expensive bathroom project was looming, and I didn’t just want one, I thought they looked best as a grouping. So we left.

Well, Monday night a very large box was left on the front porch and Nate, who had been popping out of his office a lot more that usual (he’d been watching the tracking number online), excitedly brought it in and started opening it. I had absolutely no idea what was going on.

Apparently, he had sneakily ducked back into the gallery while the girls and I were on the beach and bought them for me. The gallery was to hold them for her upcoming show down there so she could paint on them, and that didn’t happen for whatever reason. But they’re lovely, and I’m still a bit speechless.

Wow. He didn’t say a thing. I didn’t even know he was up to something, although in retrospect, it did take him an awfully long time to get those beach chairs and sand toys out of the car.

To continue with my “Health Group week”, I ate pretty well yesterday, but didn’t manage to do my physical therapy and weights. Today is a cardio day again, and it’s very dark and wet outside, so I’ll try for the treadmill, and to catch up on yesterday’s strengthening exercises.

I haven’t touched the Christmas stocking.

Oh, and one more thing. We’re having bandwidth trouble again. I’m guessing it has to do with the hundreds and hundreds of spam comments I’m getting. We’re looking into switching hosting companies, and possibly blog software as well, so if my site is up/down or otherwise, I’ll be back. I promise.