Why You Have Mothers

You have mothers so that they can suddenly surprise you with magnificent things.

"I have a surprise for you," my mother said when we arrived at Cousins Day. She frequently has a little something she's picked up somewhere and thought of me, but I wasn't expecting what she put in my hands.

Inside the box was....an iTouch! She had been at the newly expanded Costco this week and saw them on display and remembered when I'd gushed about it when we saw a TV commercial. She hadn't given me a birthday present yet and thought I'd like this.

Like it? Is the Pope a former member of the Nazi youth?

I wanted to try it right away, but of course you have to do it all through iTunes and my computer ws at home. So all I could do was look at it and admire its shiny face, but now that I'm home from Cousins Day and have about 20 minutes to spare, I'm trying to get it set up.

Thank you, Mommy! I love it!!!!

Cousins Day was a HUGE success. For me. After month after month after month of watching Peach walk away with all the money (she took home $48 because her bag was getting too heavy!...and she still has a full bag of money!), this was MY day. My 2 days, actually.

We played 9 games of 65 and I won 6 of them and split one game with Kathy and one game with Peach. I just couldn't NOT get good cards this time. This, for example, was a hand with the cards arranged as I got them!

I was also, sadly, the first person to get the boob, when I threw down a wild card as a discard.

But that's OK. At least this time I didn't spend the whole 2 days donating money to my 2 cousins!

It was a great Cousins Day, with lots of laughter about the physical ailments that afflict us as we get older. Lots to laugh about that!

Kathy made Moscow Mules to drink (Vodka, ginger ale and lime juice)

and Peach put together a great Chinese chicken casserole, and she is going to share t he recipe with the rest of us, because I know we want to make it again. My contribution was hors d'oeuvres and I made some sort of a cheese "cookie" that is topped with red pepper jelly and was pretty tasty.

I'm throwing this entry together on the fly because we're supposed to leave in 15 minutes and I'm not packed yet! But priorities come first, right?

If anybody sent me e-mail while I was away, I can't access it because my server's e-mail is down. I'm hoping it will be back up again by the time we get to Santa Barbara tonight.