Lengthy Visit

My folks came to visit over the last week. We had a great time. This was as good and enjoyable a visit from them as I could possibly have wished for. Everyone got along great; everyone had fun; everyone enjoyed everyone else's company. The time together was far too short. We didn't even have to do that much. It was sufficient to spend time together, to enjoy being together, and to eat and drink and be merry.

I took particular pleasure in seeing The Wife and my mother get along well; they both enjoy looking at open houses and new house models, so they seemed to do quite a bit of that. They also share a fondness for stamping and making cards. My father and I (more him than me) fixed some of the broken sprinklers out on the lawns, and that may well improve the appearance of the RMID. While he's much more capable than I at such things, it is enjoyable working with him and learning how he does things.

It's also exciting to hear about the improvements and plans that my parents have for The Estate At Louisville. My father's retirement business is going swimmingly well and it looks like they'll be able to fund a lot of those improvements very well in a fairly short amount of time. I'm very pleased that they're enjoying their retirement and that things are falling in place for them out in Tennessee (and out here). My father may have found a new client in the High Desert so hopefully we'll be seeing more of them soon!

Saturday night, we had some friends over; they brought their baby and we locked the dogs in the back yard. My folks had brought a premium tri-tip down on their drive from Northern California; I put it in my special marinate for a day and we grilled it up and served it with roasted rosemary potatoes, sunflowered haricots verts, and sweet corn on the cob. My mother made chocolate creampuffs and we managed to knock back a couple bottles of wine. A very good time was had by all.

For Mother's Day I made up a championship-quality quiche and we had a peach strudel. Then we looked at more houses for sale. After a while, it got to be late enough in the day that my folks had to get driving back up to Sacramento to catch their flight home (they had originally flown out to go to a wedding in the wine country) and so we bid them farewell.

But not before thanking them for the wonderful anniversary present (a new dryer) and finding the one thing they'd left behind -- what may be the last bottle of a particular kind of German wine my father likes very, very much and which he won't figure out he left behind here until he gets home tomorrow night. Rather than drink it myself, I'll pack it up and mail it to him tomorrow.