Enjoying family

Yesterday started out with a series of irritating events, but the day improved exponentially! I have 3 kids and one sister who live in the Sacramento area, and they have made it a practice during the past year to gather at one or the other's homes for dinner once a month. The family who is doing the dinner keeps the menu secret until the folks arrive, and from what I understand they usually do something fairly elaborate - and delicious! My sister Amy and her husband, John, had the dinner last night. John is a very good cook and prepared Chicken Dijon (the sauce was made from scratch) served over linguini, a salad, roasted potatos, asparagus, and an excellent angel food cake (also made from scratch) served with strawberries & blueberries over it and topped with whipped cream (you guessed it, made from scratch). I didn't think I'd be able to eat as much as I did because of the variety of appetizers before the meal.

Earlier in the afternoon I drove the dogs & me to Jeannie & Donald's house, where we spent the night. That way I didn't have to drive in the dark, and this morning Jeannie and I were able to spend time talking and catching up on various things. She was missing Ara who left yesterday to return to college in PA. Ara had called her and said she got off the plane to the shock of bitter cold! Any parent out there who has had grown children stop by with their dirty laundry will appreciate this - I TURNED THE TABLES! I took my laundry to Jeannie's house (and I didn't even ask first). Once in a while it's fun to reverse the roles of parent/child.

Jeannie also gave me their phone Yellow Pages book, which is something I miss having. Now I can look up places that might fix my laptop, or at least figure out if it is worth saving. I much prefer the local pages rather than looking businesses up online - for one thing the ads usually give more info such as address. This is helpful when a small business doesn't have its own web site. The biggest problem will be to find a place to store it.

I think it's going to be a warm day, but the inside of the RV is chilly. I hate to waste propane on running the furnace, so I put on a fleece pullover - does the job but my hands are still cold.

I got another email from someone at Lassen this morning. It sounds like cell phone reception in the park is very sporadic, so I probably won't have much luck with the air card either. I will just have to wait for occasional visits to town to use the computer, and as my oldest son reminded me, "You didn't have a cell phone or a computer on the Appalachian Trail for over 3 months, and you did just fine."