Joe Strummer died. How tragic and unfair is that?

We're back from Cali and a fantastic time was had by all. I ate roughly 100 times my body weight in a matter of several days and my exercise program went out the window between the rush for writing class, the weather, and the travel. Once you let that momentum go, inertia rushes in. I think that's an oxymoron and probably defies principles of physics, but it happens to be true. I made the Cook's Illustrated shrimp Creole gumbo recipe and it rocked on 10 planets. Everyone thought so. I can't wait to make it again. I also made a big breakfast strata and brought up a basket of lunch meat and wurst from the German deli. Mom made 4 kinds of cookies, all my favorites and any time there was tasting to be done, I had to eat one of each. Let me just emphasize that no one went hungry.

The drive down was perfect weather: clear and sunny. The drive home consisted of grey, hard rain continuously from Happy Camp to Albany but no snow on the pass which was nice. We were prepared for the worst.

I'm recovering from a nasty cold. I have zero patience when other people complain about their colds, but man, a cold is so rotten. And I couldn't sleep because of all the gagging, phlegmy coughing so yesterday we bought a cough suppressant which had something in it that kept me awake. At least I wasn’t coughing. I managed to finish all the reading in the drawer and half of Lee Maracle’s book Will’s Garden. We’re still unpacking stuff and cleaning up, doing laundry, restocking the fridge, etc. We got the boxed set of 24 for xmas and I broke that open. I suspect I will be glued to the screen for some time.