What a day!  I picked up Ellie about 11:30 as planned.  We went to Shari’s for our birthday lunch.  We had the Classic Quiche Platter with a slice of quiche, Caesar salad and fruit.  It was good, if you don’t mind a lot of lettuce “stalks.”  Neither of us eats lettuce stalks at home, so we weren’t thrilled to have them in our salad but there they were.  We asked about splitting a strawberry sundae for dessert.  That was doable and it turned out that was free since it was our birthday lunch.  I had a coupon for lunch, but the gal at the cash register couldn’t quite figure out how to deduct $8.00 from the lunch total.  It would be a lot easier if they just rang it up to begin with including the deduction but, oh no, they want to do it at checkout and then they can’t figure out how to do it.  DUH….
     From there we went to Wal-mart.  Bill saw me looking at a hummingbird locket the last time we were there so he bought me one in case I needed a backup for the one he gave me after Clint went “home.”  Well, if something happened to my Clint locket, a backup wouldn’t quite fill the bill.  So, with his permission, I could exchange it.  I was in the midst of doing that when Ellie got a call from George.  From the pained expression on her face and the “oh no!” I could only imagine what horrific thing had happened.  George had told her “I killed Abby, you need to come home.” 
     Abby was their Corgi dog – the one he bought “for Ellie” but it was always his dog.  Followed him around, stayed near him, was never really Ellie’s dog.  Ellie has told me for a year that he was going to run over the dog because she was always out there when he was running his equipment.  Today just happened to be the day.  So we hit the road and when we arrived at her house, George was out working in another part of the yard.  We all went into the house and he ran through the course of events.  He cried while telling us that he has never cried for a human who died.  I said, “So you aren’t going cry if Ellie or I die, right?”  He agreed. 
     I hung around for awhile commiserating with the “bereaved.”  We told stories as people are want to do in that situation.  I finally left them to it, and I stopped up the road to call Bill and tell him what had happened.  He couldn’t believe it.  He told me Nadine had called so I called her and said I would stop by after I picked up the mail.  I went to the library where I returned a couple of videos and picked up a couple.  The quilter’s group was meeting in the spare room so I stopped in there to see what the four of them were doing.  No one asked if I quilted or made any overtures about joining them so I was out of there in a quick hurry.
     When I got to Nadine’s I told her to put on the tea pot and find me some Tylenol, please.  My allergies were going bonkers after sitting with George for however long in his “doggie” living room.  Not only did I not get to finish my errands after spending the pricey gas money to drive to Port Orchard, but now I was totally miserable from allergic reactions.  Not my idea of a fun day!  I told Nadine the sad tale.  She told me about taking her embroidery machine into Best and telling them to send it back to the factory to get fixed.  I took a peek at her new embroidery machine before heading for home.
     I took another allergy pill when I got in the door.  I really did not want to take an anti-histamine because I knew it would knock me out.  Bill said that Deanna called shortly before I got home so I called her and told her the sad tale.  Her sad tale was that her grandson was on her computer over the weekend and now it is riddled with viruses, worms, etc.  She doesn’t want her husband to know because he doesn’t think they should be on there to begin with.  And she doesn’t want her son-in-law to know because he will want to fix it and the other family member (not sure of the relationship) is way more qualified to solve the problem.  Oh well….  All this family intrigue is too much for me. 
     I talked with my prayer sister Liz tonight.  They had a nice camping trip last week and her husband has recuperated fine from the procedure for his stones.  Dawn called today to invite us to a play that Reign will be in on Friday.  She will be the “first goat” in the school play “Robinson Crusoe.”  Of course, that is when Barbara and I will be gone for the Yarn Crawl so Bill and I can’t make the play.  And Dawn’s mother was “too busy” to come.  Sigh…. 
     “The Bachelor” finale is on tonight so I plan to watch that and see who he chooses – not that any of these ever follow through.  I think part one of the “House” season finale might also be on so I’m off to find out.
  
"Can we get beyond being Baptist or Methodist or Pentecostal and come to a place where it's all about the Lamb and not the label?" - Armando Heredia