Happy New Year

In fact we are now heading in to the second week of it. Our New Year's Eve was the usual Herculean effort to stay awake until midnight, have a sip of champagne and then toddle off to bed.

We are by ourselves for the first time since before Christmas, but it sure was fun while it lasted, and we loved having everybody here. Jeff and Bev went home yesterday. I managed to come down with a cold last week, but fortunately, the Schulers are ready to sit still and unwind when they come so I was able to just do fun stuff like play Boggle and do a bit of shopping.

We continue to tell everyone who will listen what wonderful granddaughters we have. Being 16 and 19 they were such fun to have around and were willing to do or join in on whatever was going on. They both play pinochle so that was usually the game of choice. They were fun, and cheery, and cute, and awesome!!!!! They went to the store for me one afternoon and along with my requested items, brought flowers back to me. Purchased with their own hard-earned money.

Bev and I drove to Portland with Cassie on New Year's Day to keep her company. She met her mom in Portland to do the Greta hand-off. We all had lunch together and then shopped for about 1 1/2 hours at the Fabric Depot which is one of the biggest fabric stores I have ever encountered. However, I exercised restraint and only purchased thread!! I think Greta fared quite will with fabric for at least one or two new outfits. With both mom and grandma being accomplished seamstresses, she is a well-clad little girl.

We plan to be out the driveway next Saturday afternoon. Colleen gets home about noon, and we figure anywhere outside of Steilacoom is a good start for the trip south. We will probably head for a rest stop at the juncture of I-5 and I-205 south of Portland which has lots of ample overnight parking. We have stayed there before and Cooper approves.

I have invited our friends the Bakers, and Elisabeth and Richard for dinner on Wednesday evening for some visiting before we leave. I guess I had better get busy and decide what to feed them. Cassoulet or braised short ribs are two ideas that come to mind; neither of which have I ever prepared. But that is why you have company for dinner isn't it? To try out those new and untested recipes?

Sharon Jayne called this morning to say that she just noticed this morning that our Liberty Lake house has been rased. She said the garage is still standing, which was probably a smart move because we built it new and it had a concrete floor plus a full basement! My consolation is that I have the sink, and I could easily reproduce that floorplan from memory.

Colleen is in Phoenix this week and her dog is tolerating us but that is about it. The dog walker just came to take her out so she was a happy camper. She is a very good dog for being so high energy, and I know she wishes we would go away and Colleen would return. I slept downstairs with her last night since I didn't think she would enjoy sleeping by herself, and she loves to get up on the bed and snuggle next to the down comforter!

We have a day of relative calm weather today, but there is at least one imminent storm plus a cold front that is going to put us down into the low 20s in another day or two. In fact it was nice enough today that Ken was able to wash the motorhome.

Ciao