Taking advantage of a left behind computer

Christopher left his laptop at home again. He has two classes today (Thursday), will meet with some friends after his last class, and then come home to a favorite dinner in early evening. No, he's not expecting this to be his last Supper but he knows he'll be recovering for awhile.

Believe it or not (and if you knew him, you would believe it), he is going to have me drive him to the college on Tuesday to attend a community event with the President of the college. I told him he'll be walking very slowly. :)

I noticed Stephanie finally updated her blog, hehehe. Actually, she has been extremely busy for weeks and a lot of her online time has been spent researching an anniversary vacation. I encouraged her to budget time and money for a much longed for trip with her hubby. Especially since they have saved the money already.

I have such fond memories of our last family "vacation" when we dipped into our savings in 1999... drove into Chicago for a three day trip and stayed at a hotel in the suburbs to save money... taking the commuter train into the City. Loved it! We knew it was important since Steph would be graduating from college and working full time as an Interior Designer starting that summer. We didn't know a wedding would be within the year. :)

We enjoyed even the inevitable stressful times. We accidentally got on the wrong commuter train and imagine our surprise as it zipped past our stop! We met some lovely people, including a woman who used her commuting time to make quilts by hand. We saw a few unplanned sites and ended up getting on the last train back toward Chicago that stopped where we needed. I told Stephanie at the time that I knew I'd laugh about it later... and I have... a lot... even though I was cold and tired and longed for my hotel room at the time.

Our car is parked at the mechanic's shop. We'll see how much it cost to fix the problem. Same with the computer. I must admit that not having computer access certainly made for more time catching up on housework, especially since much of my time recently has been spent in waiting rooms of doctors and the hospital.

I put my itty bitty mp3 player in a small zipped bag and found it to be a wonderful companion, especially in the large waiting rooms where there are too many distractions to my reading. Since we plan to be at the hospital for hours tomorrow, I've promised hubby he can use it.

Speaking of whom... he gave me a Valentine's Day gift (we normally don't give each other gifts except he lets me pick out flowers at the grocery store). A couple years ago, my favorite hammer turned up missing after the guys had a work day helping a church member fix up his house. We're thinking it had to accidentally be put in the toolbox belonging to one of his relatives who lives in another state.

I missed "my" hammer, it had been with me since we were first married. The closest to it we had found was way too expensive (a Craftsman!). Now, we purchased plenty of Craftsman tools for hubby's birthday and Christmas through the years for the same reason I believe in the best kitchen equipment one can afford... he used them all the time. (Especially for his gifts in the first fifteen to twenty years of marriage but I only use a hammer for little projects.)

So, imagine my surprise when he handed me a perfectly sized hammer... a Stanley that cost less than $6.00. I thought that so sweet, one of those gifts only someone who knows you well would give you for Valentine's Day. Even if he did say he knew I needed one because there are still blank spaces on our walls... a thinly veiled reference to my English Country decorating style.

I must now re-enter the frozen tundra of my garage to put a load of towels into the dryer. At least now when the weather turns Arctic, I know we are on the downhill slope toward Spring. I won the robin contest this year (a family contest that involves seeing the first robin on the season that we've had since I can remember). My husband almost didn't believe me that I saw a robin on the snow as I drove down the road to our house. That poor bird had to be freezing her giblets... literally. :)

I may get a chance to write tomorrow after the surgery. Otherwise... on Saturday. Thank you for the "welcome back" comments. Sorry for any spelling and grammar errors, I'm not used to this computer screen... good enough excuse for now. I haven't even had a chance to check e-mails since the computer crashed and there were already some that were patiently waiting for a reply. Soon... hopefully soon.