We had a quiet afternoon and Mom and I went to Trader Joe's. We bought cheese, bread, sausage, olives and wine, as Dad read that having a glass of wine was good for one's health. We got a Merlot for Dad and a White Zinfandel for Mom, since the tannins in red wine could aggravate her migraines. Mom was going to make salmon for dinner, but we "noshed" so much that no one was hungry. Another episode of Iron Chef and I turned in.

Wednesday, 22 August, 2001 - Orange, California
I slept in until 7:30 or so, and Mom made eggs, bacon, toast, etc. for breakfast. Late morning, we went over to visit Uncle Dick (Dad's brother) and Aunt Claire in Yorba Linda. I hadn't seen their house before - it is really cute and they have it decorated so nicely. We chatted for a while and caught up on family news and plans. After our visit, we went to The Tall Mouse, a huge craft store that I used to go to when I kept one of my horses (J.R.) in Yorba Linda.

We snacked on cheese, bread and sausages for lunch - yum. In the afternoon, I walked up to Eisenhower Park, just a couple of blocks away. I hadn't been up there in 20-25 years, and it was interesting to see how it had changed. The lake and stream are still there, but at some point they cemented the whole thing. The trees had grown, and the field where we used to fly kites was still there, but they got rid of the two story metal slides that we used to slice our appendages on and replaced them with tamer, plastic versions. Go figure.

Round One: we got all of our tools in a row, shut off the water, and began the operation. I crawled underneath the sink and unhooked the water hoses. The new ones were the wrong size, so Dad went back to Home Depot to replace them.

Round Two: hose connections were STILL the wrong size. Dad returned to Home Depot for the third time today.

Round Three: SUCCESS! After some Liquid Wrench, we got the old faucet off and put the new one in place. The hoses were hooked up and I tried to get the old drain off - no go. We Liquid Wrenched the thing for a while, but agreed that they'll have to get a real plumber in to do it. But at least the new faucet was on - Dad turned the water back on and it even works! Yea!

Mom had exciting news - her former boss, Jean, called and asked her to go teach the Honolulu class until they can find someone full-time. She'll be there until January! I suggested that we should have Thanksgiving in Hawaii this year - Dad still needs some convincing. Mom has a lot of things to get in order before she leaves, but I think she's excited - who wouldn't be?!

We had chicken stir-fry with rice and vegetables for dinner - excellent. Dad is convinced that he is having too much wine, so I poured him a quarter cup. He still thinks it is too much. I not sure if he'll get any beneficial health effects if he only has two tablespoons a day. :-) Laurie called in the evening - they just returned from a week in Hawaii themselves, but she wanted me to come down to see them tomorrow.

Friday, 24 August, 2001 - Orange/San Clemente California
Dad let me take The Car down to see the Jensens! Wow! I drove down to Mission Viejo and met Laurie, Merryl and Lloyd for their soccer practice. We watched them for about an hour, and then all drove over to the Pet Hospital to pick up "The Million Dollar Bird" - one of Laurie's cockatiels that got sick the day they were leaving for Hawaii and had been in the Bird Clinic for a week. Yikes. We dropped off the kids and drove to Perris to see Village Nursery, where Bill works - it is an impressive place, and Bill did most of the design for it. Unfortunately he wasn't there, so we went in search of food. The Feed Bag Restaurant closed at 2:00 for lunch, so we just missed it - darn! Burger King it is!

We took the 15 Freeway down to Temecula and went to visit a couple of wineries. It was really nice. We stopped at Lane Park Arabians on our way home - what a beautiful ranch. After Bill got home, we all went to the Fisherman's Restaurant at the Pier - a tradition for Laurie and me. Lloyd's friend Josh went with us. We went home, watched "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" and hit the hay.

Saturday, 25 August, 2001 - Orange, California
I said goodbye to Laurie and went back up to Mom and Dad's in the morning. We ate some breakfast and I washed the car, then took it over to Main Place to do a little shopping. I packed up my stuff - my suitcase weighs a ton as it is filled with all of the bottles of things I bought at Viansa. Dad helped me tie up the case of wine from Dry Creek to take home as checked baggage.

Around 12:30, Mom drove me up to LAX for my flight. We said goodbye and I checked my bags and went to the gate. Oh Happy Day - they upgraded me! It was an uneventful flight, but long as we took the southern route to avoid turbulance. I got home around 12:30 a.m. - yawn - to a delighted kitty cat.