A post in which I hear from Paul

Paul called me today. Apparently he called Eve to offer an olive branch, which she again slapped out of his hand. He called to ask her how she was doing, and tell her that they had heard of the difficulties she's been having. Reportedly she didn't even say hello, just started yelling at him.

I noticed last week that when she mentioned the card from Cindy (which even had a new picture of Brenden in it) she didn't seem terribly excited or over the moon. She didn't have much to say about it. Apparently when she showed it to me, she was waiting for me to criticize it. When I didn't do that, she didn't have much else to say about it. I draw this inference from the fact that Paul told me today that she castigated him roundly about what an inadequate, sterile, and generally unsatisfactory communication it was after all this time.

Sigh. She and Dad make me so tired sometimes. I just don't understand it. To make things even more pleasant, she gave Paul the third degree about how he knew about her surgeries and the difficulty thereof. That means she'll castigate me about talking to them. I'm supposed to keep their lives a secret from Cindy and Paul, in order to force them to call Dad or Eve if they want to know what's going on - yeah, that would work. Since I won't see them between now and then, it will probably be Sunday when we go for Dad's birthday dinner. I can hardly wait.

They had called me from the printer's yesterday to tell me that the cookbooks were ready. I was really stoked about picking them up today, but realized on the way home that it had completely slipped my mind! I couldn't believe that after that has been such an issue for weeks that I forgot to even pick them up. Tomorrow is the last day I have before I have to have them. That means if there is any problem, there's no time to fix it now (crossing fingers).

I got my See's candy on the way home last night!! Last year the company gave us See's gift certificates for Christmas, and I was so disappointed when I went to the mall to get my candy to find that they had already left. They pulled out the day after Christmas like a thief in the night. The gift certificates weren't redeemable by mail, which I have to say put my nose out of joint a bit. First they changed the name of my favorite See's candy from "Almond Rocha" to "Toffee-ettes", and now this! I have to admit though, as stupid as the name is, that's how good they are.

I finally remembered the gift certificates today. I put them up last year to save them. I walked in to the mall, just a bit ready for a fight. I wasn't sure they would honor the year-old certificates or not, but they did. They didn't bat and eyebrow, and were very nice to me. So that pretty much put my nose back in joint.

While I was at the mall anyway, I went ahead and picked up Reagan's gift - that finished Lisa's family. In the old days we would be doing gifts with them this weekend (we used to combine Christmas with her family and my Dad's birthday), but now that they have Ava and Brenden's out of the picture, we go to Chapin for Christmas.

I had decided to reward myself with dinner out for going to the mall, but there wasn't anything there that I really wanted, and I couldn't think of anything I wanted on the way home either. I ended up going home and making a salad, then having about a half pound of candy for dessert. Healthy.