It was leftovers for dinner

so that bought me an extra 45 minutes of time .. or thereabouts. What do you think I did with it? Did I go for a walk? Do a video walk along? Nope. Took a nap. Then I looked around here trying to decide what I should do next. The wind was whipping leaves off the trees like they were miniature snowflakes ... and it wasn't a warm tropical wind. Thought about going outside and moving some things to places they really need to be for the winter. Then I thought about it again. And didn't do anything out there. Saturday. I'll do it Saturday.

I hauled out the Christmas stockings and started trimming and pressing while listening to an audio Jeffrey Archer. Switched several loads of laundry. (Got that room cleaned out the other evening.) And then my phone rang.

The sweet noise of cell phone rings. Aren't they great?

The first call was from Katie. Katie was Jari's friend long before mine. Actually, Katie gave the approval for my engagement ring. How's that for friends? We had babies at the same times, spent oodles of hours together visiting yard sales when we lived near each other, spent many week nights on telephones when we didn't. Jari & I even lived with their family for a while after a short attempted move to Minnesota way back when. Life has gotten busy and for the last too many years ... our contact has been very sketchy. But I've visited with her several times now in the last couple of months. I really appreciate my 7 minute commute to work ... and hers is like an hour. Terrific time to catch up with friends on the phone being as I'm up here in the great north and she's near Detroit. That was fun. Catch up and encourage each othe. She's one of those wonderful friends that you can just pick up where you left off ... doesn't matter if you talked last year or the year before. Someday we're going to have time to play together again.

Being as the world is incredibly small ... the next came from Ronda. I was going to add pictures on here of all these wonderful folks as I wrote. Problem is that I've deleted many of the pics on my computer and you don't want to know what it would take to get through a photo box in order to scan. shudder! Anyway. Off to another corner of the country ... Flagstaff. Ronda lives in Flagstaff and I do talk with her very frequently. I'm still working on convincing her she needs to live up here. So far .. no go. Probably would help to have a job here. Always fun to have a chat with her and catch up on what's going on in that part of the world ... and plan a gals weekend getaway somewhere!

Then we moved over a few miles and went to Prescott. Jari's sister, Tarja, is visiting there for the week. Oh do I wish his parents had a web cam. Tarja is a hoot. I use to think Jari got his goofiness from his dad. No. It came from his mom. So I'm just envisioning the picture of what is going on over there told by both Tarja and Mummu. Hot flashes and flapping shirts and pink pajamas with menopausal inner tubes for waistlines. I probably burned a few calories laughing last night! Tarja and Joe are hoping to make a trip here this winter. I can't wait to see her on a snowmachine. Must get the video camera functional before then. Must!

This morning this post is taking me only about 45 minutes to complete. 'Cuz I went looking for pictures on my computer to add along with this. Somewhere along the way I got lost in memory lane this morning. We all miss these times ... they were great time with friends and family.

On the real bright side ... our truck is done at the shop. Jari is picking it up today and we're hoping it runs like a champ! The time is now 7:00 a.m. ... I've been up since 6:15. Kids don't have school today so the house is quiet .. all the mice are sleeping. And I need to get hustling and off to work.

Happy Friday!