Wednesday

Today I am thankful that Diana just drove peacefully down the highway while I was having a fit trying to make her Garmin do what we wanted it to do, and it kept talking, giving us directions meant to get us around Phoenix, when we were trying to find a place in Rockford! It would. not. shut. up. I was ready to burst into frustrated tears, and at some point I veangefully pulled the cord out of the side of it, trying to just make it stop, but it kept on talking, because even when you unplug the charger cord, it is charged and has battery power and it just keeps trying to get you to turn right on M-85, which is a few hundred miles away!

Finally, finally, we got it to recognize that it was driving down a highway in Illinois, but it kept babbling about continuing for 20 miles on Ulysses S. Grant Memorial Highway, and I tossed it onto Diana's lap and told her, with disgust, that it just wasn't going to work, because I had no idea where it thought we were, and she said, "I think that's the road we're on," and you know what? I remembered that back in the foggy recesses of memory, I have heard Highway 20 called Ulysses S. Grant Memorial Highway, so yeah, it was all good then. (General Grant was quite the local hero around these parts. Who knew?)

We were following Rich, who was driving the Saturn, to Rockford so he could drop the car off to get a new muffler...system?, and we lost him the minute we left town, but we didn't see him broken down along the side of the road, so no problem. We picked him up at the dealership and he drove on the way home.

When we got home, I made a Spanish Omelet for dinner while Diana made an apple pie (actually it was two apple pies!)!! Diana says she learned to make the pie from our Grandma, and she doesn't have a recipe written down, although she did give me some sketchy directions one time. Rachel came by the house before work and she ate a piece, and said it is the perfect apple pie, better than all those apple pies we ate earlier this summer when RA and Rondee were practicing pie recipes for the county fair! That is some high praise!

Oh, I almost forgot about this, but before we drove to Rockford Diana and I went shopping at W@lmart to get a couple of things we needed, like pie crusts, and while we were there, Diana was completely minding the store for them. She was checking on the employees (dyed blue hair!), and told someone in the grocery area that they needed to clean up a squashed grape on the floor before someone's old grandma slipped on it and broke her hip. Then we went to the painting area where she had someone shake up a can of paint for us, and while we were looking at paint brushes, I noticed an old guy with a cane was watching us, and kind of following us, and when Diana chose a paint brush and flipped it into my cart, he came up and asked her where they kept the masking tape! She was happy to show him and recommend the best tape for his job, and while she did that, I ducked down a side aisle and called Rachel to tell her about it, because I thought it was so funny!

There was amusing people-watching in the store, and we spent some time speculating on the relationship between three people who were shopping together. Also, is there a shortage of hairbrushes in Illinois? Because about every third person we saw needed one.

So that was our day, and tomorrow we have to take Rich back to Rockford to pick up his car. Then he and Rachel are going to drive to Michigan to visit his parents and Diana and I are going to make pumpkin pies! And pork chops for dinner, just like Jen Lancaster. Oh, the happiness!