Third Friday coming up.

It's that time again. Rummage through the gathered red, pink, black (red & black!), lacy, mushy, hearty, wry and anatomical odds and ends to concoct loving (or not) greetings for your loved (or liked) ones. valentines are also your last best chance to send greetings to the people you forgot at Christmas card time.

There will be paper, lace (paper and otherwise) blank cards and envelopes, all the standard colorizing and mark-making supplies, glue, scissors, magazines to cut up, a bit of clip art, and embellishments. I'm also pulling out and photocopying all the heart images I can find - we're talking anatomical illustrations - and I have some good ones. Maybe I'll throw in some other organs, too. After all, what's a heart without a brain, or a stomach, or a spleen? I'll have postage stamps to buy at cost, and there is a mailbox out front of the building, though it might be a bit early to put them in the mail. But, carpe diem, you know.

SOMETHING DIFFERENT for 2009. I've decide to put out a piggybank (well, it's really a dog) and ask that attendees drop in a dollar on the evenings they come to play. It's an informal thing, and I'm doing it mostly because people have expressed discomfort at not pitching in, to which I can only say that you are a nice bunch! But, yes, there are things that we will eventually run out of, like glue, that can't be scrounged but have to be purchased. Please don't think you have to stop by the ATM on your way just because you don't have four quarters in your pocket; that would make me feel real bad! And don't feel that you'll make me twice as grateful by putting in two dollars; I'll just be embarrassed. OK?